From counting to artificial intelligence
A road from marking numbers to algorithms and on to the debate about thinking machines.
This page delivers no verdict; it presents claims and evidence with their sources. No theory in science is absolute.
Stop 1First knowledgeQuestion
Counting and the Ishango bone
No one knows when counting began; what the notches on the Ishango bone mean is debated.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 2c. 1800 BCEMathematicsEvent / publication / experiment
Babylonian mathematics and Plimpton 322
The Babylonians used a base-60 number system; our clocks and angles still carry it.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 3628MathematicsIdea / theory / claim
Zero as a number
Brahmagupta wrote down rules for calculating with zero, turning it from a placeholder into a number.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 4c. 820MathematicsText / work
Al-Khwārizmī and algebra
Al-Khwārizmī's book gave us the word “algebra”, and his name the word “algorithm”.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 51843Computing and artificial intelligenceText / work
Babbage, Lovelace and the Analytical Engine
Babbage designed a programmable machine; Lovelace wrote notes for it that are often called the first computer program.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 61936Computing and artificial intelligenceEvent / publication / experiment
The Turing machine and computability
Turing defined computation with an abstract machine and showed that some problems cannot be solved by any algorithm.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 7December 1947Computing and artificial intelligenceTechnology / invention
The transistor
The transistor became the electronic switch that made computation small and cheap.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 81948Computing and artificial intelligenceEvent / publication / experiment
Information theory
Shannon made information measurable and calculated the limits of communication.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 92012Computing and artificial intelligenceTechnology / invention
Deep learning
Many-layered artificial neural networks moved to the front of image recognition in 2012.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 10June 2017Computing and artificial intelligenceTechnology / invention
The Transformer and large language models
The Transformer architecture became the basis of large language models; what these models “understand” is debated.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 11July 2025Computing and artificial intelligenceEvent / publication / experiment
AI reaching gold-medal level at the International Mathematical Olympiad
In 2025 an AI system scored at gold-medal level at the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Claims, evidence and sources →
Other journeys
- The story of the atom · 7 stops
- From the night sky to the beginning of the universe · 11 stops
- The journey of medicine · 8 stops
- Reason and revelation: a debate in Islamic thought · 9 stops
- Views on the origin of living things · 11 stops
- From brain to mind · 9 stops