jmc@cs.stanford.edu

Formal Reasoning Group
Computer Sciences Department
Stanford University

http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/


Photo (1)

artificial intelligence  -  timesharing  -  Lisp -  theory of computation

Selected Events
 

The events in this first secton are taken primarily from (2) with some details filled in from John McCarthy's home page.

Early interest in science
-  family's political views
- belief that technology was good for humanity

Mathematical ability
- high school junior
- did exercises for Cal Tech freshman and sophomore caculus texts

1944 enrolls at Cal Tech
- receives bachelors and masters degrees

1948 Hixon Symposium on Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior at Cal Tech
- hears von Neumann talk about self-replicating automata
- begins thinking about the relationship of human intelligence to machine intelligence

1949 goes to Princeton for PhD work
- intelligence modeling encouraged by von Neumann

1955 Proposes 1956 Dartmouth Summer Project on AI (6)
- joint proposal with Minsky, Rochester and Shannon
- first use of "artificial intelligence"
- proposal outlines McCarthy's intent to study the relationship of language to intelligence
- requires a computer language for manipulating symbols as well as numbers
- prelude to LISP

1956 Dartmouth Summer Project on AI
- first gathering of people pursuing the creation of a truly intelligent machine, and it
- established a foundation for AI as a separate field of study within computer science.

1959 Proposes time sharing for a "transistorized IBM 709" at MIT. (4)

1960 Publishes initial paper on LISP. (5)

1960's joins the counter culture

This next section is taken from John McCarthy's Home Page (3)

1961-1967 Papers on mathematical theory of computation

Towards a Mathematical Science of Computation, IFIPS 1962 extends the results of the previous paper.

Correctness of a Compiler for Arithemetic Expressions by John McCarthy and James Painter may have been the first proof of correctness of a compiler. Abstract syntax and Lisp-style recursive definitions kept the paper short.

Other items of historical interest.

Professional Honors 1971 ACM A. M. Turing Award

1985 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award

Many others.... What Futures Shall We Make?  by John McCarthy (3)

Notes

1. Hall of Fellows.   http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/hall_of_fellows/, December 2, 2002.  Computer History Museum.

2. John McCarthy (1927 - ).  http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/mccarthy.html, November 30, 2002.  From  Jones Telecommunications & Media Encyclopedia.  This biography contains some interesting non-technical material.

3. John McCarthy.  John McCarthy's Home Page.  http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/, November 30, 2002.

4. John McCarthy.  Memorandum to P. M. Morse Proposing Time Sharing, January 1, 1959.  http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/timesharing-memo/timesharing-memo.html, December 1, 2002.

5. John McCarthy.  Recursive Functions of Symbolic Expressions and Their Computation by Machine, Part I.  April 1960.  http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/recursive/recursive.html, December 1, 2002.  This is the original paper on LISP.

6. J. McCarthy, M. L. Minsky, N. Rochester, and C. E. Shannon, "A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence," (1955 Aug 31). Also available online at http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/dartmouth/dartmouth.html (Formal Reasoning Group, Stanford University, accessed 2004 Oct 5). This generally is regarded as containing the first appearance of the term "artificial intelligence."