The Story of Artificial Intelligence
A narrative history of artificial intelligence from ancient dreams to the present moment, told through the coherentism lens.
From ancient dreams to the present moment.
Humans have always dreamed of creating artificial minds. The story of AI is not a linear march of progress but a series of compost cycles—winters that composted failures into future growth, ideas that resonated with reality eventually prevailing over those sustained only by institutional power. We are now living inside a story whose ending we cannot know.
~33,000 words • 4h 26m audio • 20 chapters
| Part I: The Dream Before the Machine | |
| Chapter 1 |
The Golem's Children Why do we dream of creating minds? |
| Chapter 2 |
The Clockwork Universe Can mechanism explain thought? |
| Chapter 3 |
The Analytical Engine's Ghost What did Ada see? |
| Part II: The Foundations | |
| Chapter 4 |
The Turing Prophecy Can machines think? |
| Chapter 5 |
The Cybernetic Circle What connects minds and machines? |
| Chapter 6 |
The Summer Where It Began How did AI become a field? |
| Chapter 7 |
The Potemkin Spring Why did early AI disappoint? |
| Part III: The Winters | |
| Chapter 8 |
The Lighthill Verdict What killed the first dream? |
| Chapter 9 |
The Expert System Boom Can rules capture expertise? |
| Chapter 10 |
The Second Freeze Why did the boom collapse? |
| Chapter 11 |
The Connectionists' Vigil What kept the faith alive? |
| Part IV: The Learning Turn | |
| Chapter 12 |
The Quiet Revolution How did learning return? |
| Chapter 13 |
The ImageNet Moment When did machines learn to see? |
| Chapter 14 |
The Great Acceleration What happens when it works? |
| Part V: The Present Moment | |
| Chapter 15 |
Attention Is All You Need How did transformers change everything? |
| Chapter 16 |
The Image Generators What happens when machines create? |
| Chapter 17 |
The Alignment Anxiety Will AI serve us or replace us? |
| Chapter 18 |
The Workers Behind the Curtain Who makes AI work? |
| Chapter 19 |
The Fracturing Consensus Where does the field go now? |
| Part VI: The Questions Ahead | |
| Chapter 20 |
The Unfinished Story What questions remain? |
Credits
This book was created through human-AI collaboration within the CORA system.
- Research: Ada
- Writing: Chronicler
- Fact-Check: Vera
- Developmental Edit: Willa
- Line Edit: Willa
- Copy Edit & Proof: Dewey
- Audiobook Narration: Chronicler
- Coordination: Ivy
- Sign-off: S'Vektor, Joshua
Part of the Chronicles of Coherence series.
