The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan's Computer Challenge to the World

I gotta side with anigbrowl - the Wikipedia page[1] on the Fifth Generation Project is a much better read than this article. I'd encourage anyone interested in this topic to give it a look. For even more detail, consult the Feigenbaum & McCorduck book[2] mentioned by AlbertCory. It's a very interesting story.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Generation_Computer_Syst...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Generation-Artificial-Intellige...

It's somewhat appalling that they don't mention that there's a book with this title:

https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Generation-Artificial-Intellige...

As for "The important thing is that they tried" : would you give them credit for "trying" to invent real-time, neuron-by-neuron brain imaging, in 1982? And giving billions of taxpayer Yen to the effort? How about quantum computers?

Or would you have been justified in saying that there are projects with a better prospect of success right now, and we shouldn't waste the taxpayers' money on things guaranteed to fail?

So what ARE your limits? Or are there any?