Editing Scott Fahlman

{{Short description|American computer scientist (born 1948)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = 
| name              = Scott Fahlman
| honorific_suffix  = 
| image             = SEF2007a.jpg
| caption           = Fahlman in 2007
| birth_name        = Scott Elliott Fahlman
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1948|03|21|mf=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Medina, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date        = <!--{{Death date and age|yyyy|mm|dd|1948|03|21|mf=y}}-->
| death_place       = 
| death_cause       = 
| resting_place     = 
| resting_place_coordinates = <!--{{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}-->
| field             = [[Computer science]]<br/>[[Natural language processing]]
| work_institutions = [[Carnegie Mellon University]]
| education         = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]<br/>[[Bachelor of Science|B.S.]], [[Master of Science|M.S.]] (1973)<br/>[[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] (1977)
| thesis_title      = NETL: A System for Representing and Using Real-World Knowledge
| thesis_url        = https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6888
| thesis_year       = 1977
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Gerald Jay Sussman]]
| academic_advisors = [[Patrick Winston]]
| doctoral_students = [[David S. Touretzky]]<br/>[[Michael Witbrock]]
| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = [[Automated planning and scheduling]]: [[blocks world]]<br/>[[Semantic network]]s<br/>[[Neural network]]s<br/>[[Dylan (programming language)|Dylan]]<br/>[[Common Lisp]]: [[CMU Common Lisp]]<br/>[[Lucid Inc.]]
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| awards            = [[Fellow]], [[American Association for Artificial Intelligence]]
| footnotes         = 
| website           = {{Official URL}}
}}

'''Scott Elliott Fahlman''' (born March 21, 1948) is an American [[computer scientist]] and [[Professor]] [[Emeritus]] at [[Carnegie Mellon University]]'s [[Language Technologies Institute]] and Computer Science Department.  He is notable for early work on [[automated planning and scheduling]] in a [[blocks world]], on [[semantic network]]s, on [[neural network]]s (especially the cascade correlation algorithm), on the [[programming language]]s [[Dylan (programming language)|Dylan]], and [[Common Lisp]] (especially [[CMU Common Lisp]]), and he was one of the founders of [[Lucid Inc.]] During the period when it was [[Technical standard|standardized]], he was recognized as "the leader of Common Lisp."<ref>{{Citation 
 |title=Patterns of Software
 |last=Gabriel |first=Richard |author-link=Richard P. Gabriel
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |url=https://dreamsongs.com/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf
 |access-date=2020-01-25
 |year=1996
 |page=183}}
</ref> From 2006 to 2015, Fahlman was engaged in developing a [[knowledge base]] named ''Scone'', based in part on his thesis work on the NETL Semantic Network.<ref>{{cite web
 |title=The Scone Knowledge-Base Project
 |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/scone/
 |website=School of Computer Science
 |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University
 |access-date=27 October 2013
 |quote=Scone is a high-performance, open-source knowledge-base (KB) system intended for use as a component in many different software applications.}}</ref> He also is credited with coining the use of the [[emoticon]].

==Life and career==
Fahlman was born in [[Medina, Ohio]], the son of Lorna May (Dean) and John Emil Fahlman.<!-- <ref>{{cite web |url=http://birth-records.mooseroots.com/l/7936852/Scott-Elliott-Fahlman |title= |url-status=dead |access-date=2020-04-08}}</ref> --> He attended the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), where he received a [[Bachelor of Science]] (B.S.) and [[Master of Science]] (M.S.) degree in [[electrical engineering]] and [[computer science]] in 1973, and a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] (Ph.D.) in [[artificial intelligence]] in 1977. He has noted that his doctoral diploma says the degree was awarded for "original research as demonstrated by a thesis in the field of Artificial Intelligence" and suggested that it may be the first doctorate to use that term.<ref name="Quora">{{cite web |url=https://www.quora.com/Who-was-the-first-person-to-get-a-PhD-degree-specifically-in-Artificial-Intelligence/answer/Scott-E-Fahlman |title=Who was the first person to get a PhD degree specifically in "Artificial Intelligence"? |last=Fahlman |first=Scott E. |date=5 March 2019 |website=Quora |access-date=2020-04-08}}</ref> He is a [[fellow]] of the [[American Association for Artificial Intelligence]].

Fahlman acted as thesis advisor for Donald Cohen, David B. McDonald, [[David S. Touretzky]], Skef {{proper name|Wholey}}, Justin Boyan, [[Michael Witbrock]], and Alicia Tribble Sagae.

From May 1996 to July 2001, Fahlman directed the [[Justsystem Pittsburgh Research Center]].

=== Boltzmann Machine (1983) ===
In 1983, Fahlman, Geoffrey Hinton and Terrence Sejnowski published a paper in Proceedings of the AAAI-83 Conference, Washington DC, August 1983.  The paper was titled as "Massively Parallel Architectures for AI: NETL, Thistle and Boltzmann Machines".  

===Emoticons===
Fahlman was not the first to suggest the concept of the [[emoticon]] – a similar concept for a marker appeared in an article of ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' in May 1967, although that idea was never put into practice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/smiley.asp |title=Fact Check: Emoticon (Smiley) Origin |website=Snopes |date=20 September 2007 |access-date=2018-09-19}}</ref>

In an interview printed in ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1969, [[Vladimir Nabokov]] noted: <blockquote>"I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile –
 some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket."<ref name="Nabokov1973">{{Citation |last=Nabokov |first=Vladimir |title=Strong Opinions |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780679726098/page/133 133–134] |year=1973 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780679726098/page/133 |location=New York |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=0-679-72609-8 |url-access=registration}}</ref></blockquote>

Fahlman is credited with originating the first [[smiley]] emoticon,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2001-04-22/the-man-who-brought-a-to-your-screen |title=The Man Who Brought a :-) to Your Screen |author=<!-- Unstated --> |date=22 April 2001 |website=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |access-date=2018-09-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/sefSmiley.htm |title=Smiley Lore :-) |website=School of Computer Science |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University |access-date=2018-09-19}}</ref><ref>{{Citation 
 |title=-) turns 25
 |publisher=[[Associated Press]]
 |date=2007-09-20
 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/18/emoticon.anniversary.ap/index.html
 |url-status=dead
 |access-date=2007-09-20
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012051803/http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/18/emoticon.anniversary.ap/index.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive -->
 |archive-date=2007-10-12}}
</ref> which he thought would help people on a message board at Carnegie Mellon to distinguish serious posts from jokes. He proposed the use of <code>:-)</code> and <code>:-(</code> for this purpose, and the symbols caught on. The original message from which these symbols originated was posted on 19 September 1982. The message was recovered by Jeff Baird on 10 September 2002 and read:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/Orig-Smiley.htm |title=Original Bboard Thread in which :-) was proposed |website=School of Computer Science |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University |access-date=2020-04-08}}</ref>

<pre style="border: 0px;">
19-Sep-82 11:44    Scott E  Fahlman             :-)
From: Scott E  Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c>

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways.  Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends.  For this, use

:-(
</pre>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Official website|www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef}}

{{Common Lisp}}
{{Lisp programming language}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:1948 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American computer scientists]]
[[Category:American artificial intelligence researchers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]]
[[Category:Carnegie Mellon University faculty]]
[[Category:MIT School of Engineering alumni]]
[[Category:Lisp (programming language) people]]
[[Category:People from Medina, Ohio]]
[[Category:Natural language processing researchers]]
[[Category:Machine learning researchers]]
[[Category:Creators of writing systems]]