John McCarthy

American computer scientist and cognitive scientist (1927-2011) · United States · Scientists · Died at 84

John McCarthy is read about 903 times a day, in 64 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 21 October 2026

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He named the field. In 1956, McCarthy coined "artificial intelligence" at a Dartmouth workshop and spent the next half-century building the tools - Lisp, time-sharing, garbage collection - that made thinking machines possible.

Scientists Academic Mathematics Psychology AI United States Americas 20th Century

A life in dates

2011Died24 October 20112007“When there's a will to fail, obstacles can be found.”In their words1 March 2007John McCarthy (1983), quoted in The Sayings of John McCarthy, at www-formal.stanford.edu, March 1, 2007. Also quoted in Keith Cary CurtisRead the whole statement

2003Benjamin Franklin MedalAward2002Programming Languages Achievement AwardAward1995“He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.”In their wordsPROGRESS AND ITS SUSTAINABILITY (1995 - )Read the whole statement

1994ACM FellowAward1990AAAI FellowAwardNational Medal of ScienceAward1988Kyoto Prize in Advanced TechnologyAward1985Computer Pioneer AwardAwardIJCAI Award for Research ExcellenceAward1983“It's difficult to be rigorous about whether a machine really 'knows', 'thinks', etc., because we're hard put to define these things.”In their wordsDecember 1983"The Little Thoughts of Thinking Machines", Psychology Today, December 1983, pp. 46-49. Reprinted in Formalizing Common Sense: Papers ByRead the whole statement

1979“LISP is now the second oldest programming language in present widespread use (after FORTRAN)...”In their wordsJohn McCarthy (1979) "History of Lisp," as quoted in: Avron Barr, . The Handbook of artificial intelligence, Volume 2. Addison-Wesley,Read the whole statement

“Machines as simple as thermostats can be said to have beliefs, and having beliefs seems to be a characteristic of most machines capable of problem solving performance.”In their words"Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines" (1979) Sect. 1: Introduction. Reprinted in Formalizing Common Sense: Papers By John McCarthy, 1990,Read the whole statement

1971“Whenever we write an axiom, a critic can say that the axiom is true only in a certain context.”In their words"Generality in Artificial Intelligence" (1971-1987), ACM Turing Award Lectures: The First Twenty Years, ACM Press, 1987,Read the whole statement

Turing AwardAward1927Born4 September 1927

Also in Deutsch

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John McCarthy Stanford

John McCarthy (2314859532)

John McCarthy (computer scientist) Stanford 2006 (272020300)

John McCarthy 2006

In their own words 9

John McCarthy

9 statements, newest first

When there's a will to fail, obstacles can be found.
Mar 1, 2007, John McCarthy (1983), quoted in The Sayings of John McCarthy, at www-formal.stanford.edu, March 1, 2007. Also quoted in Keith Cary Curtis, Own words
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
1995, PROGRESS AND ITS SUSTAINABILITY (1995 - ), Own words
It's difficult to be rigorous about whether a machine really 'knows', 'thinks', etc., because we're hard put to define these things.
Dec 1983, "The Little Thoughts of Thinking Machines", Psychology Today, December 1983, pp. 46-49. Reprinted in Formalizing Common Sense: Papers By, Own words

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Awards

Benjamin Franklin Medal2003

Programming Languages Achievement Award2002

ACM Fellow1994

National Medal of Science1990

AAAI Fellow1990

Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology1988

IJCAI Award for Research Excellence1985

Computer Pioneer Award1985

Turing Award1971

Computer History Museum Fellow

Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society

In their orbit

Mother: Ida Glatt McCarthy

About this person

Born September 4, 1927, McCarthy came up through American computer science at a moment when machines were calculators and the idea they might reason was science fiction. He co-authored the 1956 Dartmouth proposal that christened AI as a discipline, gathering a small circle of researchers who believed cognition could be formalized. He invented Lisp, the symbolic language that became AI's native tongue, and pioneered time-sharing and garbage collection - infrastructural breakthroughs that reshaped computing itself. McCarthy spent most of his career at Stanford, where he continued pushing the boundaries of what machines could know. He won the Turing Award in 1971, the National Medal of Science, and the Kyoto Prize before his death on October 24, 2011.

Country

United States

In common with John

Marvin MinskyBoth received IJCAI Award for Research Excellence

Judea PearlBoth received IJCAI Award for Research Excellence

Herbert A. SimonBoth received IJCAI Award for Research Excellence Allen NewellBoth received IJCAI Award for Research Excellence

Geoffrey HintonBoth received IJCAI Award for Research Excellence Michael I. JordanBoth received IJCAI Award for Research Excellence

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