Ten men, one summer

1956. Dartmouth College.
Ten researchers gathered for summer in New Hampshire, invited by young mathematician John McCarthy.

McCarthy. Marvin Minsky. Claude Shannon. Herbert Simon. Allen Newell. These were not obscure names. Between them, they would define computer science.

Their 1955 proposal contained this sentence, now legendary for its boldness:

"We propose that a 2-month, 10-man study of artificial intelligence be carried out... on the basis of the conjecture 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."

— The Dartmouth Proposal, 1955