Workings of science

Abstract

While most people are not familiar with the details of how artificial intelligence (AI) works, the term itself is becoming more familiar to the non-scientific community, to the point that it ("AI") has almost become part of the regular vernacular of the ordinary person. AI has been with us for a long time-from first beginnings in ancient times in the form of automatons and other devices mimicking humans or other animals, through the middle of the last century when the term "artificial intelligence was actually coined, to the present times where it (the label rather than the actual technology) is entering the psyche of the general public. This article explores the notion that the technology we call artificial intelligence is not yet ripe, but is establishing itself as a science in its own right, and that by 2156-the 200 year anniversary of the coining of the term-the technology should be in a position to deliver on its promises.