An Introduction to Neural Networks

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Introductory Book!
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn about neural networks. It starts with a good overview of the biological basis that will be appropriate for the engineering student. The author is witty and appropriately cynical.

Rating:
Summary: Not Practical
Review: There's nothing really wrong with this book - it's just not useful for someone wanting to actually program a neural network system.

I read all sorts of stuff about the nervous systems in horseshoe crabs, but I don't find myself able to do anything with neural networks. Therefore, I'm scouring the Internet to find some source code examples or a tutorial of some kind.

If you want to know miscellaneous information about neural networks, go ahead and buy the book. But if you actually want to construct neural networks, buy something else.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Neural Net Introduction!
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. It introduces neural networks, with a strong emphasis on biological plausibility. For example, the book compares the visual systems of simple animals with neural network feature extraction. Anderson moves effectively among evolutionary biology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and behavioral psychology. His insights are important, clear, and often funny as well. The book gently introduces source code for implementing the various neural networks that he describes.