Intelligence as search

The Logic Theorist worked. So Newell and Simon pushed the idea further.

What if intelligence is just search? If every problem can be described as a starting point, a goal, and a set of allowed moves, then solving it means finding a path through that space. And computers can search that space very fast.

They built the to test the idea. It used a method called means-ends analysis: look at where you are, look at where you want to be, pick the move that closes the biggest gap. Repeat.

If every problem is a search problem, and computers search fast, then intelligence might just be a matter of speed.