Inman Harvey was a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sussex, he is now a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the same University. His research interests largely centre on the development of artificial evolution as an approach to the design of complex systems. Application domains of interest include evolutionary robotics, evolvable hardware, molecules for pharmaceutical purposes. A theoretical topic in evolution is Neutral Networks, the study of pathways of neutral mutations through sequence space, or percolating ridges through fitness landscapes, which may be typical of many complex evolutionary scenarios and can be exploited by artificial evolution. Other interests include philosophical approaches to AI and Artificial Life (a non-representational, dynamical systems approach); passive dynamic walking; and Gaia theory. He originally started as a mathematician and philosopher at Cambridge University.
The article "Evolving a Conscious Machine" in the June 1998 issue of Discover magazine (pp. 72–79) overviews Harvey's and Adrian Thompson's work with evolving an FPGA program to recognize tones.
Famous quotes containing the words inman and/or harvey:
“It was because of me. Rumors reached Inman that I had made a deal with Bob Dole whereby Dole would fill a paper sack full of doggie poo, set it on fire, put it on Inman’s porch, ring the doorbell, and then we would hide in the bushes and giggle when Inman came to stamp out the fire. I am not proud of this. But this is what we do in journalism.”
—Roger Simon, U.S. syndicated columnist. Quoted in Newsweek, p. 15 (January 31, 1990)
“Called on one occasion to a homestead cabin whose occupant had been found frozen to death, Coroner Harvey opened the door, glanced in, and instantly pronounced his verdict, “Deader ‘n hell!””
—For the State of Nebraska, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)