American cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky, who pioneered the field of artificial intelligence, died on Sunday night in Boston. He was 88.

Starting in the early 1950s, Minsky used the idea that the thinking processes of human beings and machines are alike to develop theories on how to endow computers with intelligence. The computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was among the first to develop technology that helped computers employ common-sense reasoning, pushing them closer to the multifunctional devices they are today.

He started the MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Project along with his colleague John McCarthy, who coined the term. Their AI laboratory would later become part of the ARPAnet project, the forerunner to the internet.

Minsky’s groundbreaking books, including Perceptrons, The Society of Mind and The Emotion Machine, are considered essential reading of those interested in the field of artificial intelligence. Minsky won a series of international awards including computer science’s highest prize, the Turing Award. Minsky is also credited with inventing the first neural network simulator, mechanical arms and hands, a musical synthesiser, and key components of early programming language LOGO.