7 ms·

A Proposal for the Dartmouth Research Project on Artificial Intelligence (1955)

69 points by benbreen 5y ago

pomian 5y ago
Reading the list of attendees to the conference, is an interesting glimpse into computing history.
- MeteorMarc 5y ago
  Apparently, the ambitious program did not hurt their careers!
ghaff 5y ago
To me, an interesting bit of trivia is that Cognitive Science had its own introductory moment just a few months later at MIT with some overlapping attendance. This is particularly of note if you aren't of the school of thought that AI ~ ML. But cognitive science hasn't had its own equivalent period of rapid advance. http://mechanism.ucsd.edu/~bill/teaching/w07/philpsych/bechtel.cogscihistory.pdf http://mechanism.ucsd.edu/~bill/teaching/w07/philpsych/becht...
andyxor 5y ago
> 3. how can a set of (hypothetical) neurons be arranged so as to form concepts. > 6. machine methods of forming abstractions from sensory and other data. Still unsolved after 66 years, the problem indeed "needs more theoretical work". Working on these at the same time with designing computer and compiler (1 & 2) probably was a big distraction. Another distraction is introducing 5 & 7 ("self-improvement" and "randomness & creativity") before answering more fundamental questions of knowledge representation (3 & 6). Kind of like building algorithms before figuring out the details of data structures.
- varjag 5y ago
  I feel the context has to be emphasized here. FORTRAN won't appear until a year later and LISP for all three. It was no distraction: it was so early that much of CS and computing history branches out from that event.
  - andyxor 5y ago
    yes, that project was so influential in developing computer science, it determined almost all subsequent AI efforts from symbolic AI to the recent revival of ANNs. Those influential 1950s seminars contributed to the current treatment of AI as a subset of CS instead of independent discipline with roots in cognition and neuroscience research. but with all due respect you can’t really talk about artificial intelligence before understanding intelligence
taoothereporter 5y ago
Page not found
DonaldFisk 5y ago
I get "Page not found". Archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20210520010546/https://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/dartmouth/dartmouth.html https://web.archive.org/web/20210520010546/https://www-forma...
TMWNN 5y ago
Did this lead to DTSS (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Time_Sharing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Time_Sharing_System>) (and, thus, BASIC)?
- ghaff 5y ago
  Short answer is probably not really. McCarthy was at Dartmouth very briefly which happened to overlap this conference. He moved on to MIT and then Stanford. John Kemeny was recently in Dartmouth's math department at the time but AFAIK there was very little interaction with the early AI work.

69 points by benbreen 5y ago

pomian 5y ago

Reading the list of attendees to the conference, is an interesting glimpse into computing history.

MeteorMarc 5y ago
Apparently, the ambitious program did not hurt their careers!

ghaff 5y ago

To me, an interesting bit of trivia is that Cognitive Science had its own introductory moment just a few months later at MIT with some overlapping attendance. This is particularly of note if you aren't of the school of thought that AI ~ ML. But cognitive science hasn't had its own equivalent period of rapid advance. http://mechanism.ucsd.edu/~bill/teaching/w07/philpsych/bechtel.cogscihistory.pdf http://mechanism.ucsd.edu/~bill/teaching/w07/philpsych/becht...

andyxor 5y ago

> 3. how can a set of (hypothetical) neurons be arranged so as to form concepts. > 6. machine methods of forming abstractions from sensory and other data. Still unsolved after 66 years, the problem indeed "needs more theoretical work". Working on these at the same time with designing computer and compiler (1 & 2) probably was a big distraction. Another distraction is introducing 5 & 7 ("self-improvement" and "randomness & creativity") before answering more fundamental questions of knowledge representation (3 & 6). Kind of like building algorithms before figuring out the details of data structures.

varjag 5y ago
I feel the context has to be emphasized here. FORTRAN won't appear until a year later and LISP for all three. It was no distraction: it was so early that much of CS and computing history branches out from that event.
- andyxor 5y ago
  yes, that project was so influential in developing computer science, it determined almost all subsequent AI efforts from symbolic AI to the recent revival of ANNs. Those influential 1950s seminars contributed to the current treatment of AI as a subset of CS instead of independent discipline with roots in cognition and neuroscience research. but with all due respect you can’t really talk about artificial intelligence before understanding intelligence

taoothereporter 5y ago

Page not found

DonaldFisk 5y ago

I get "Page not found". Archived copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20210520010546/https://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/dartmouth/dartmouth.html https://web.archive.org/web/20210520010546/https://www-forma...

TMWNN 5y ago

Did this lead to DTSS (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Time_Sharing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_Time_Sharing_System>) (and, thus, BASIC)?

ghaff 5y ago
Short answer is probably not really. McCarthy was at Dartmouth very briefly which happened to overlap this conference. He moved on to MIT and then Stanford. John Kemeny was recently in Dartmouth's math department at the time but AFAIK there was very little interaction with the early AI work.