Neurophysiologist William Grey Walter's 1963 book "The Living Brain" inspired Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville's invention of the trance-inducing Dreammachine. But in the late 1940s, Walter also pioneered the "bottom-up" approach to artificial intelligence with his "tortoise" mobile robots. Link Discuss
David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.












