Lisp

John McCarthy’s Lisp makes symbolic expressions and recursive functions a practical programming medium for AI research.

Why this milestone matters

This entry marks a change in the relationship between human intent and executable systems. It is presented as a navigational marker inside a wider, overlapping history—not as proof that a single date, person or institution acted alone.

Evidence

Evidence type: primary.

McCarthy — Lisp paper ↗

Editorial note

CodeHistory keeps timeline priority claims revisable. Where the surviving record is retrospective, that limitation is stated rather than silently converted into certainty.