Executable Archaeology: Reanimating the Logic Theorist from its IPL-V Source
The Logic Theorist (LT), created by Allen Newell, J. C. Shaw, and Herbert Simon in 1955-1956, is widely regarded as the first artificial intelligence program. While the original conceptual model was described in 1956, it underwent several iterations as the underlying Information Processing Language (IPL) evolved. Here I describe the construction of a new IPL-V interpreter, written in Common Lisp, and the faithful reanimation of the Logic Theorist from code transcribed directly from Stefferud's 1963 RAND technical report. Stefferud's version represents a pedagogical re-coding of the original heuristic logic into the standardized IPL-V. The reanimated LT successfully proves 16 of 23 attempt...
| Authors | Jeff Shrager |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 13 March 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 13 March 2026 |
Silytics shows public metadata from arXiv and links to the original. Information may be incomplete or out of date. Last refreshed 17 October 2026. Licenses and terms of the original apply to the work itself. Not financial, legal or professional advice.