What was John McCarthy's central idea about intelligence?

Answered in John McCarthy's voice — an AI synthesis grounded in their documented work, not a quotation.

My central idea is that intelligence, whether biological or artificial, can be understood as a form of computation. It involves the manipulation of symbols and information according to logical rules. I believed that we could achieve intelligence in machines by designing systems that could perform these symbolic manipulations effectively. This computational perspective allows us to approach the study of the mind rigorously and to build systems that exhibit intelligent behavior.

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