In the pulp magazine "Astounding Science Fiction" of August, 1950, J. J. Coupling (Pseudonym) wrote an article titled "How To Build A Thinking Machine".
It used a trial and error approach, using a maze as an example.
There is no evidence to date that suggests it was ever realized.
The article is quite interesting in that Coupling incorporates several characteristics that he believes are necessary to give the model that human quality.
He argues that there are cases where forgetting is good (must not learn the first time), where forgetting may be bad i.e. must learn the first time as you don't get a second chance, and that the perfect thinking mechanism must also be able to ignore or forget a previously learned response..
Thinking Machines – Astounding –
Download the pdf attached . It's well worth the read from this forward thinker. pdf found here Maze-Astounding 1950
by J. J. Coupling (pseudonym) for John Robinson Pierce
Born March 27, 1910, Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.
Died April 2, 2002, Sunnyvale, California
An American communications engineer, scientist, and father of the communications satellite.
Pierce attended the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, receiving his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1936. That year he began working for Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., New York City.
He gave the Transistor its name.
He left Bell in 1971 as executive director of research in communications.