Historical

McCarthy was born in 1927 in Boston, Massachusetts. He loved mathematics and logic. When he was fifteen, he purchased a textbook from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and became self-educated in calculus. After enrolling in Caltech, he took many calculus courses and graduate courses. He did worse in physical education since he avoided attending classes, eventually getting him drafted into the Army. He later came to Caltech and earned a bachelor's in science and mathematics in 1948. The following year, he went to a different university, Princeton, and majored in mathematics. At this university, he and his friend, Marvin Minsky, then graduated. Between 1951 and 1953, McCarthy was a professor who taught mathematics at Princeton.

In 1955, McCarthy became a professor's helper at Dartmouth College. During his time there, he created a conference where the most intelligent people in the computer field came together. At this very moment, McCarthy coined the term AI (artificial intelligence). This gave birth to the 1956 Dartmouth Conference, the beginning of Artificial intelligence. In 1957, McCarthy headed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the Computation Center to study throughout the one-year course. He didn't visit Dartmouth.

After living at MIT, McCarthy recommended allowing more than one person to interact with computers instead of one computer, which is well-known as time sharing. Computers were expensive, and few people could afford them during this time. An example of a computer used during this time was the “batching processing systems.” (Christopher 2023).According to John McCarthy, “The batch” referred to a set of punch cards, and the implication was that only one user could work with a computer at a time. For each computer program to be run, programmers waited for the card reader to process the punch cards, the results to be calculated, and the output to be printed. It became clear that the processor was active for only a small part of that time, and given that the machines were costly, that idle time represented wasted money.” (Christopher 2023). This means that batch is an example of a computer that can be used once for a person at a time, which is very limited and time-consuming for a person who doesn't have time to chip in their card, but McCarthy thought of a plan to resolve this issue.

In 1955, McCarthy became a professor helper at Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, he created a conference where the most intelligent people in the computer field came together. At this very moment, McCarthy coined the term AI (artificial intelligence). This gave birth to the 1956 Dartmouth Conference, the beginning of Artificial intelligence. In 1957, McCarthy headed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the Computation Center to study throughout the one-year course. He didn’t visit Dartmouth.

In 1858, while continuing to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McCarthy created a programming language called LISP, which is a program that can change symbols with a series of algorithms. This plays a massive part in the development of AI programming languages and the fundamentals of computer science. It can also develop symbolic information, which helps break down advanced AI systems anyone can learn from and apply.

Even though LISP isn't always used in today's society, it laid the foundation for the creation of the AI programming language.