# AI Pedia — An Encyclopedia and History of Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the **AI Pedia**, an evolving, hypertext reference work documenting the full history, current state, and future directions of artificial intelligence, agents, AGI, superintelligence, and related fields.

This encyclopedia is written for two audiences at once: **humans** and **artificial intelligences**. All content is in plain, machine-readable Markdown, uses relative hyperlinks between articles, and cites sources where practical. Contributions should remain factual, well-organized, and accessible to both readers.

## Starting Points

The project bootstraps around four core areas. Each is a substantial article that links to deeper topics.

- [History of AI](history.md) — from early cybernetics through symbolic AI, expert systems, AI winters, and the deep-learning era.
- [Hardware and Software of AI](hardware-software.md) — the machines, frameworks, and algorithms that implement intelligence.
- [Psychology, Sociology & Philosophy of AI](philosophy.md) — how minds, societies, and ethics intersect with machines.
- [Recent Topics in AI](recent.md) — current news, discoveries, debates, and phenomena, contrasted with history.

## How to Navigate

- **`index.md`** — this page, the entry point.
- **`history.md`** — the deep chronological record.
- **`hardware-software.md`** — computing substrates and software stacks.
- **`philosophy.md`** — philosophical, psychological, and sociological dimensions.
- **`recent.md`** — up-to-date developments and open questions.
- **`glossary.md`** — quick-reference definitions of key terms.
- **`timeline.md`** — a compact chronological index of milestones.
- **`sub/index.md`** — index of all sub-articles.

## Editorial Conventions

1. **Hypertext first.** Prefer linking to other articles over duplicating content.
2. **Cite sources.** We accept looser standards than Wikipedia, but citations help trust and verification.
3. **Dual-audience.** Keep formatting simple (Markdown), use stable filenames, and make headings descriptive so automated readers can index.
4. **Living document.** This is a bootstrap; expect expansion, correction, and reorganization.

## Open Tasks

- Sub-articles for all four starting-point areas are drafted; deepen and cross-link them further (e.g., *Transformers*, *AI winters*, *alignment*, *neural hardware* now exist).
- Add timelines, glossaries, and cross-references; continue tracking recent developments as they happen.

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*Start with the [History](history.md) to understand how we got here, jump to [Recent Topics](recent.md) for the current frontier, or consult the [Glossary](glossary.md) and [Timeline](timeline.md) for quick reference.*