John McCarthy - Father of AI & LISP dies at 84

[mikerr]

John McCarthy - Father of AI & LISP dies at 84

In organizing the Dartmouth Summer Research Conference on Artificial Intelligence in 1956, McCarthy not only added a term to the popular lexicon, he founded an entirely new area of research alongside fellow pioneers Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon. In the years to come, he would go on invent LISP — one of the world’s most influential programming languages — and he played a major role in the development of time-sharing systems.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise...sp-dies-at-84/

This and Dennis Ritchie (C & Unix) dying earlier this month, losing all the early pioneers

[TheAnimus]

He was a guy who found truly unique ways to think, express and learn about problems. A live very well lived imsho.

[chuckskull]

RIP.

The things you do for yourself die with you, the things you do for others live forever.

He certainly did plenty. One of so many people who have had a profound effect on the world that most have never heard of, a sad loss.

[Steve]

Found out about this at our research group meeting. Sad news. I guess we're entering a period in which the founders of the modern era of computing are departing. Let's hope we don't forget the work they've done and the lessons they've taught us.

[Apex]

That is a fear of mine - that the new generation don't think like the old and don't remember the same :/

[peterb]

RIP.

The things you do for yourself die with you, the things you do for others live forever.

He certainly did plenty. One of so many people who have had a profound effect on the world that most have never heard of, a sad loss.

Add Tommy Flowers and Brian Tutt to that list too (if you watched the documentary)

http://forums.hexus.net/general-disc...st-heroes.html