The 1950s

The deluge of science fiction films in the 1950s has led many to call that decade the "Golden Age of Science Fiction," and, for the most part, Hollywood’s view of technology and technological progress in the 1950s was positive and optimistic. Although things such as the threat of atomic war and fears about the effects of radiation gave American audiences reason to fear technological and scientific advances, other realities, such as paranoia about communist invasion, postwar advances in medicine and industry, and the opening of the space race, also gave American audiences reason to celebrate and embrace America’s increasing technological sophistication. Advanced technology meant increased global power, wealth, health, security, and leisure time; if it also brought about the threat of global atomic annihilation, well, it could also be used to solve that problem as well. However, underneath the gleaming "gee-whiz" surface of advanced technology as imagined in the films of the 1950s, there lurks a menace—and that menace is closely associated with the growing field of artificial intelligence.

Below are some representative films from the 1950s. Clicking on the title will take you to the filmography page, where you'll find a brief description of the film, any links to other CyberCinema pages on that film, and that film's entry in the Internet Movie Database.

Gog (1954) Tobor the Great (1954) Forbidden Planet (1956) The Invisible Boy (1957)

Some AI Milestones from the 1950s*

1950

  • Isaac Asimov, "I, Robot"
  • Turing Test proposed (Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence")
  • Eckert & Mauchley market UNIVAC, first commercial computer
  • EDVAC completed at University of Pennsylvania

1952

  • CBS uses UNIVAC to predict Eisenhower-Stevenson election
  • First computer used by DoD (IBM 701)
  • Rochester designs IBM 701

1954

  • Isaac Asimov, "The Caves of Steel" (Robot Science Fiction)
  • Newell, Shaw, and Simon develop "IPL-11", first AI language
  • Gog released by United Artists and Ivan Tors Productions; WWIII averted
  • Tobor the Great released, directed by Lee Sholem; commie plans thwarted

1956

  • Newell, Shaw, and Simon create "The Logic Theorist", solves math problems
  • AI named at Dartmouth computer conference, first meeting of McCarthy, Minsky, Newell, and Simon
  • CIA funds GAT machine-translation project
  • Ulam develops "MANIAC I", first chess program to beat a human being
  • Forbidden Planet released by MGM; monsters from the id threaten colony on Altair 6

1957

  • Newell, Shaw, & Simon create General Problem Solver (GPS), means-ends analysis
  • The Invisible Boy released by MGM; little Timmy prevents supercomputer from taking over the universe.

1958

  • McCarthy introduces "LISP" at MIT
  • ALGOL 58

1959

  • Minsky and McCarthy establish MIT AI Lab
  • Rosenblatt introduces Perceptron
  • Samuel's checkers program wins games against best human players

*Adapted from Mark Kantrowitz, "Milestones in the Development of Artificial Intelligence."
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