2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey #1)

by Arthur C. Clarke

In the 1980s, Minsky and Good had shown how neural networks could be generated automatically—self-replicated—in accordance with an arbitrary learning program. Artificial brains could be grown by a process strikingly analogous to the development of a human brain. In any given case, the precise details would never be known, and even if they were, they would be millions of times too complex for human understanding.