Stanford professor John McCarthy, father of artificial intelligence, dies in Calif. at age 84

[bananas]

Source: Washington Post

John McCarthy, a pioneer in artificial intelligence technology and creator of the computer programming language often used in that field, has died. He was 84.

Stanford University, where McCarthy was a professor for four decades, announced McCarthy’s death Monday. The school said he died at his Palo Alto home but did not provide a cause.

Tributes to McCarthy flooded into Twitter, where people mourned the loss of another Silicon Valley technology innovator. Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and C programming creator and UNIX co-developer Dennis Ritchie died earlier this month.

McCarthy was a leader in the artificial intelligence field, coining the term in a 1955 research proposal. He said “every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.”

<snip>

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/stanford-professor-john-mccarthy-father-of-artificial-intelligence-dies-in-calif-at-84/2011/10/25/gIQAFjDgGM_story.html

[davidwparker]

1. LISP, right? I seem to make the association with him and

comp sci book on LISP that I had.

((( RIP )))

[reACTIONary]

2. Yes, LISP... The Lamba Calculus (nt)

[Odin2005]

3. A prophet and a visionary. may he RIP.

[Gregorian]

4. I used to hang out at the Stanford artificial intelligence center back in the 70's.

It was an amazing place. Zep wars! They had spray bottles of this stuff that they'd run around spraying everyone with. A robot that roamed around the outside of the building. I played the very first prototype of Asteroids. Huge monitors. It was a version that I've never seen since, with multiple suns.

We used to sneak in as kids. I miss it. And a great location in the hills of Palo Alto.