HKP 2nd edition

A Second Edition of HKP?

Will there be a 2nd edition?

The short answer is not any time soon. Although the publishers have encouraged us to work on a second edition of HKP, we're not likely to do in the next couple of years because:
  1. We're all busy with other projects; and
  2. Our interests and focus have changed, so that none of us is intimately familiar with the latest developments across all of neural network theory.
One solution to (2) may be to bring another author or authors on board, so it's quite possible that a second edition would have 4 or more authors.

What would a second edition include?

Given the uncertainty about producing a second edition at all, it's hard to say what it would contain. We've discussed the following ideas:
New material
The book should be brought up to date by the addition of material on the latest developments in neural network theory.
Ties to other literature
The book should provide a more substantive introduction to other fields related to neural networks, including statistics and evolutionary computation.
Pedagogical improvements
The book could be improved by reordering some material (e.g., putting the Hopfield networks later), increasing clarity in sections that have been problematic for readers, and perhaps changing the emphasis (e.g., somewhat away from physics).
Electronic resources
The book should continue to provide an extensive bibliography of the printed literature, but should also provide pointers to the growing electronic literature and resources.
Exercises and Problems
Exercises, problems, and suggested projects might be added to each chapter. However, that role is provided in part by these online resources, perhaps making printed exercises largely redundant. The online exercises can grow dynamically with the contributions of many authors, but could not be incorporated directly into the book for copyright reasons.
Other pedagogical tools
Since the book has been widely used as a course text, it could be made more text-like with such devices as chapter summaries, sidebars, worked examples, glossaries of terms, review questions, etc.
Printing improvement
The present edition was printed at 300dpi with relatively poor grayscales in the illustrations. Obviously this could be greatly improved.

How Can I Contribute?

We welcome all comments and suggestions. You can send email to


Last Updated: 30-Mar-04