Scott Fahlman

Lore & Background

Fahlman was born in Medina, Ohio, the son of Lorna May (Dean) and John Emil Fahlman. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1973, and a Doctor of Philosophy 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. He is a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

During the period when Common Lisp was standardized, he was recognized as 'the leader of Common Lisp.' 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. He acted as thesis advisor for Donald Cohen, David B. McDonald, David S. Touretzky, Skef Wholey, Justin Boyan, Michael Witbrock, and Alicia Tribble Sagae. From May 1996 to July 2001, Fahlman directed the Justsystem Pittsburgh Research Center.

In 1983, Fahlman, Geoffrey Hinton, and Terry Sejnowski published a paper titled 'Massively Parallel Architectures for AI: NETL, Thistle and Boltzmann Machines' in Proceedings of the AAAI-83 Conference. Fahlman is credited with originating the first smiley emoticon, which he thought would help people on a message board at Carnegie Mellon to distinguish serious posts from jokes. He proposed the use of :-) and :-( for this purpose, and the symbols caught on. The original message was posted on 19 September 1982.

Reader's Guide

Scott Fahlman's significance lies in his contributions across multiple areas of computer science and artificial intelligence. His early work on automated planning in a blocks world and on semantic networks helped shape the field of AI. He made notable advances in neural networks with the cascade correlation algorithm, and his leadership in the standardization of Common Lisp established him as a key figure in programming language design. As one of the founders of Lucid Inc., he helped commercialize Lisp technology. His later work on the Scone knowledge base continued his research on semantic networks. However, Fahlman is perhaps most widely known for originating the first smiley emoticon, :-), in 1982, a simple typographical innovation that became a global phenomenon in digital communication. While he was not the first to suggest the concept of an emoticon—a similar idea appeared in Reader's Digest in 1967 and Vladimir Nabokov noted the need for a smile symbol in 1969—Fahlman's proposal was the first to be put into practice and widely adopted. His career reflects a blend of foundational AI research and practical contributions to computing culture.

Did You Know?

• Fahlman's doctoral diploma says the degree was awarded for 'original research as demonstrated by a thesis in the field of Artificial Intelligence,' and he suggested it may be the first doctorate to use that term.
• He proposed the use of :-) and :-( on a Carnegie Mellon message board on 19 September 1982 to distinguish jokes from serious posts.
• Fahlman was recognized as 'the leader of Common Lisp' during the period when it was standardized.
• He acted as thesis advisor for Donald Cohen, David B. McDonald, David S. Touretzky, Skef Wholey, Justin Boyan, Michael Witbrock, and Alicia Tribble Sagae.