(1916-2001) Herbert Alexander Simon was a Richard King Mellon University Professor of Computer Science and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, and one of only 14 foreign scientists to be inducted into the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Simon was the son of German immigrants, and received his A.B. (1936) and Ph.D. (1943) from the University of Chicago.

He wrote 27 books, including Administrative Behavior : A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations, Models of Bounded Rationality : Empirically Grounded Economic Reason, The Sciences of the Artificial, and an autobiography, Models of My Life.

Simon argued that there was no possibility of people processing (obtaining, even) all of the information that they would need to make a fully rational decision; rather, that their attempts represent acceptable outcomes, within constraints. Simon called this view of decision-making "bounded rationality," or "intended rational behavior, and referred to the results as "satisficing (as Cugel mentioned)." Administrative man is one who satisfices.

His research interests in the field of computer science were in artificial intelligence, information processing systems, intelligence and epistemology, and the social implications of computer technology.

His psychology research was focused on learning from examples, CaMeRa (a model using visual imagery in reasoning), finding good problem representations, EPAM (a unified theory simulating perception and memory), and the psychology of scientific discovery (BACON and other programs).

In Simon's abstract, What We Know About Learning, he wrote: Universities are very long-lived institutions, and in several respects, rather curious ones. The University of Paris was founded around the year 1200, when students prepared their own textbooks by copying their professors’ lectures. In spite of the invention of printing not too long thereafter, students still continued to behave in their classes as copyists - assiduously taking notes, recording the deathless words of professors as if they didn’t know printing had been invented and was available. I have heard that there are some universities where this happens even today.


What We Know About Learning, Herbert Simon:
http://www.engrng.pitt.edu/~fie97/simonspeech.html

Computer science research and publications:
http://www.psy.cmu.edu/psy/faculty/hsimon/comp-sci.html

Research and publications in psychology:
http://www.psy.cmu.edu/psy/faculty/hsimon/hsimon.html

Research and publications in Philosophy of Science:
http://hss.cmu.edu/HTML/departments/philosophy/people/directory/Herbert_Simon.html

Scientific discovery research:
http://www.psy.cmu.edu/psy/faculty/hsimon/sci-dis.html

Faculty listing:
http://www.gsia.cmu.edu/afs/andrew/gsia/workproc/roster/full-time/simon.html

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