Claim · 1961-01 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Minsky (1961) describes the problem of search as testing possible answers to a problem against a means of checking a proposed solution, and values any device that reduces the search.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence → discusses →

Where it appears

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Claim and evidence

Steps Toward Artificial Intelligencediscusses ↓

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1961-01 · publication Records dated 1961 →

Scope and limitsDefining statement from a later HTML transcription; not evidence that the family began here.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription)

Proceedings of the IRE · 1961-01

Archived copy, captured 2026-10-05: Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription)

Cite the original source

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Source excerpt

“If, for a given problem, we have a means for checking a proposed solution, then we can solve the problem by testing all possible answers. But this always takes much too long to be of practical interest. Any device that can reduce this search may be of value.”

Location in source Section I, The Problem of Search, summary

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Marvin Minsky
Version: Later HTML transcription; introduction and summary of the argument read by the pre-1996 candidate search. Transcription hosted at web.mit.edu.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-06
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2026-10-05: Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence (MIT-hosted transcription). An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2026-10-05. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.
Attribution: Marvin Minsky, "Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence", Proceedings of the IRE 49 (1961).
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, Kinds of AI and technical history (research/technical-history). The quotation (48 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, PDF line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor. An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. The concept is explicitly discussed in the document. This makes no earliest-use, invention or transmission claim.

Date. Date of publication, as the source gives it.

Record ID th-sp-def-minsky-1961-search