Automated Theorem Proving

Among the dreams of mankind is the one dealing with the mecha­ nization of human thought. As the world today has become so complex that humans apparently fail to manage it properly with their intellectual gifts, the realization of this dream might be regarded even as something like a necessity. On the other hand, the incredible advances in computer technology let it appear as a real possibility. Of course, it is not easy to say what sort of thing human thinking actually is, a theme which over the centuries occupied many thinkers, mainly philosophers. From a critical point of view most of their theories were of a speculative nature since their only way of testing was by Gedanken-experi­ ments. It is the computer which has opened here a wide range of new possibilities since with this tool we now can model real experiments and thus test such theories like physicists do in their field. About a quarter of a century ago, scientific activi­ ties of that sort were started under the label of artificial intelligence Today these activities establish a wide and prosperous field which the author, in lack of any better name, prefers to call intellectics. Without any doubt, the com­ puter programs developed in this field have tought us much about the nature of human thinking.