The quest for artificial intelligence : a history of ideas and achievements / Nils J. Nilsson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Dreams and dreamers -- Clues -- Gatherings -- Pattern recognition -- Early jeuristic programs -- Semantic representations -- Natural language processing -- 1960s' infrastructure -- Computer vision -- "Hand-eye" research -- Knowledge representation and reasoning -- Mobile robots -- Progress in natural language processing -- Game playing -- The Dendral Project -- Speech recognition and understanding systems -- Consulting systems -- Understanding queries and signals -- Progress in computer vision -- Boomtimes -- The Japanese create a stir -- DARPA's strategic computing program -- Speed bumps -- Controversies and alternative paradigms -- Reasoning and representation -- Other approaches to reasoning and representation -- Bayesian networks -- Machine learning -- Natural languages and natural scenes -- Intelligent system architectures -- Extraordinary achievements -- Ubiquitous artificial intelligence -- Smart tools -- The quest continues.

"Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field within computer science that is attempting to build enhanced intelligence into computer systems. This book traces the history of the subject, from the early dreams of eighteenth-century (and earlier) pioneers to the more successful work of today's AI engineers."--BOOK JACKET.