In 1982 John Hopfield published the paper "Neural networks and physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities" describing a simple network model functioning as an associative and content-addressable memory.

The paper started a new subfield in computational neuroscience and led to the influx of numerous theoretical scientists, in particular physicists, to the field.

The podcast guest wrote his PhD thesis on the model in the early 1990s, and we talk about the history and present impact of the model.