The Fifth Generation
by Edward A. Feigenbaum, Pamela McCorduck · first published 1983
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I've been intrigued lately by the notion of Japan's "Fifth Generation", and wonder what was the nature of the research being done, its actual results, etc. I'm also wondering if there are possible links that we could try to establish with the current AI boom. One interesting…
on “'Fifth Generation' Became Japan's Lost Generation (1992)” ↗…Race by Michael J. English If Only We Knew What We Know by C. Jackson Grayson and Carla O'Dell Artificial Life by Steve Levy The Man Who Tamed Lightning: Charles Proteus Steinmetz by Floyd Miller The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan's Computer Challenge to the World by Edward Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck
on “Ask HN: Obscure Books You'd Recommend?” ↗I gotta side with anigbrowl - the Wikipedia page[1] on the Fifth Generation Project is a much better read than this article. I'd encourage anyone interested in this topic to give it a look. For even more detail, consult the Feigenbaum & McCorduck book[2] mentioned by AlbertCory.…
on “The Fifth Generation Project in Japan (1992)” ↗…all about getting Government money. Ed Feigenbaum was writing stuff like that in the 1980s. He was calling for a national AI lab, headed by him, to fight off the threat from Japan. See his book, "The Fifth Generation".[1] This was all for "expert systems", which didn't do much and led to the "AI Winter". This time around, we don't need that, because machine learning already has profitable applications. Finding applications…
on “A 20-Year Community Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Research in the US [pdf]” ↗…and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence” (1979), a chronicle of past attempts to mechanize thought. I was first introduced to her name when I read a book she co-wrote along with Ed Feigenbaum - The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan's Computer Challenge to the World[1]. It took me a while to later realize that she also wrote another book that was sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. That being…
on “Pamela McCorduck, Historian of Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 80” ↗…finished a MSCS in 1985. Ed Feigenbaum was still influential then, but it was getting embarrassing. He'd been claiming that expert systems would yield strong AI Real Soon Now. He wrote a book, "The Fifth Generation", [1] which is a call to battle to win in AI. Against Japan, which at the time had a heavily funded effort to develop "fifth generation computers" that would run Prolog. (Anybody remember Prolog? Turbo…
on “Go, Marvin Minsky, and the Chasm That AI Hasn’t yet Crossed” ↗Interesting read. The mention of the book “The Fifth Generation” by Edward A. Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck (that I read in 1983, and was totally into at the time) made me think of Kai-Fu Lee's new book "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order"…
on “Who Killed Prolog? (2010)” ↗"Japan getting an edge with future technology!" When have I heard that before? Oh, yeah, it was 1983: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Generation-Artificial-Intellige...?
on “Japan pitches 'Society 5.0' to keep its edge in tech and science” ↗Oh, you want to hold up Japan, huh? Like from 1990 on? Or this, from the early 80's? https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Generation-Edward-Feigenbaum/dp... Or how about the US? https://www.technologyreview.com/2011/07/25/192832/lessons-f... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra
on “The Tantrum Venture Capitalists Threw over Silicon Valley Bank” ↗It's somewhat appalling that they don't mention that there's a book with this title: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Generation-Artificial-Intellige... As for "The important thing is that they tried" : would you give them credit for "trying" to invent real-time, neuron-by-neuron brain imaging, in 1982? And giving billions of…
on “The Fifth Generation Project in Japan (1992)” ↗https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Generation-Artificial-Intellige...
on “The Tron Project: How Japan Almost Ruled IT” ↗