Machine Intelligence: The First 80 Years August 6, 2001 by Ray
Kurzweil A brief history of machine intelligence written for
“The Futurecast,” a monthly column in the Library Journal.
Originally published August, 1991. Published on KurzweilAI.net
August 6, 2001. A new form of intelligence has recently emerged
on Earth. To assess the impact of this most recent branch of
evolution, let’s take a quick journey through its first 80
years. Drawing upon a diversity of intellectual traditions and
fueled by the exigencies of war, the first computers were
developed independently and virtually at the same time in three
different countries, one of which was at war with the other two.
The first operational computer, developed by Alan Turing and his
English colleagues in 1940, was named Robinson, after a popular
cartoonist who drew Rube Goldberg machines. Turing’s computer
was able to decipher the German “Enigma” code and is credited
with enabling the Royal Air Force to win the Battle of Britain
and withstand the Nazi war m