The Computer and the Brain is an unfinished book by mathematician John von Neumann, begun shortly before his death and first published in 1958. Von Neumann was an important figure in computer science, and the book discusses how the brain can be viewed as a computing machine. The book is speculative in nature, but von Neumann discusses several important differences between brains and computers of his day (such as processing speed and parallelism), as well as suggesting directions for future research.