Aladdin from "The Arabian Nights" had a magic lamp that fulfilled his every wish when rubbed. Today we have a smartphone that serves as a window to a whole universe of knowledge, entertainment and even wise personal assistants, such as Siri - all we have to do is rub the screen. Aladdin's lamp was powered by a genie, but what powers Siri?

Neural networks. It's an astounding concept that tries to mimic the way living brains work by amalgamating human and machine ways of thinking. The goal of this book is to present the reader with a digestible, readable explanation of neural networks while keeping the underlying concepts intact. The reader will acquire fundamental knowledge of neural networks through loosely related chapters that nonetheless reference terms and ideas mentioned throughout the book.