1927-

American computer scientist who was a pioneer in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence. Minsky co-founded MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1959 and has been a lifelong proponent of machine intelligence. In 1951 he built the SNARC, the first neural network simulator. He has also developed many other robots and robotic devices, such as hands. He continues to work toward developing computers that can think and reason in a human fashion.