Professor John McCarthy
Father of AI

Technological Opportunities for Humanity

1 December 1999 I taught a course, STS160 , Technological Opportunities for Humanity at Stanford University during Winter Quarter. It is mainly based on 20 year old futurism - by myself and by others. I admit I haven't resisted the opportunity to update my own notes. The reason for the old futurism is that it gives the students the opportunity to evaluate the predictions. They can see which ones came to pass and which didn't and express their opinions as to why.

The students prepared short essays commenting on the readings which are submitted by email for grading by the TA and myself.

Here's my main page about the future.