Thad Polk
Cognitive neuroscientist and Samuel D. Epstein Collegiate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, known for research on aging, neural architecture, and addiction, and for Great Courses lectures like "The Addictive Brain."
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APPEARANCES
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PODCASTS
Sep 15, 2026
Mark GuadagnoliHOST
It definitely wasn't, uh, uh, in the lexicon of You know, of normal people, right?
Thad PolkGUEST
So, um, but this book really turned me on to the idea that, um, it was useful to think of, um, human, the human mind as a computational engine.
Thad PolkGUEST
Now, that doesn't, doesn't answer every question about the human mind, but, um, but the idea that you could actually build mechanistic models of thought, uh, blew me away.
Thad PolkGUEST
So I decided I'll go to graduate school in computer science and try my hand at artificial intelligence, and I had the amazing privilege of studying with, um, Herb Simon's longtime collaborator, Allen Newell, who's...
20 MINS LATER