In the summer of 1956, a group of young scientists sat down to consider the astounding proposition that 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. Armed with their own enthusiasm, the excitement of the idea itself, and lots of government money, they predicted that the whole range of human intelligence would be programmable within their own lifetimes. Nearly half a century later, the field has grown tenfold - with mixed results. Based on extensive interviews with the major players in the history of artificial intelligence, including Marvin Minsky, Herbert Simon, Alan Newell, Raj Reddy and Patrick Winston, this book chronicles their successes, from robotics to world-class chess playing and, equally, their failures. With anecdotes about the founders and leaders and their celebrated feuds and intellectual gamesmanship, the book also discusses the next necessary breakthrough - teaching computers common sense.