Computational logic: Memories of the past and challenges for the future

Abstract

The development of computational logic since the introduction of Frege's modern logic in 1879 is presented in some detail. The rapid growth of the field and its proliferation into a wide variety of subfields is noted and is attributed to a proliferation of subject matter rather than to a proliferation of logic itself. Logic is stable and universal, and is identified with classical first order logic. Other logics are here considered to be first order theories, syntactically sugared in notationally convenient forms. From this point of view higher order logic is essentially first order set theory. The paper ends by presenting several challenging problems which the computational logic community now faces and whose solution will shape the future of the field.