Some Older Artificial Intelligence Books Are Worth Reading

Indeed, as a Renaissance Man, I am interested in all subjects of the human experience, the flows of civilization and the technology past, present and future, but, I am not one to go and recommend that you re-read old science books, when the world in the last few decades has become so technologically advanced, everything has changed. In fact, a PhD in many sectors 10-years ago is almost worthless today. Still, I'd like to recommend an old AI or Artificial Intelligence book from back in the 1980s to you:
"The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence" by Avron Barr, Paul R. Cohen and Edward Feingenbaum; HeurisTech Press, Stanford, CA; 1982
This book takes us back to the first real discoveries in artificial intelligent programming, and has over 250 contributors and is some 1200 pages in three volumes, all of which are jam packed with projects, information, and research references from the top scientists of the day. This is brilliant stuff, and indeed, it kind of makes you wonder if mankind has gotten stupider or if all the most recent research has been hidden from view and is well beyond most folks' comprehension now.
Having just completed volume two, I am completely humbled by the dedication, knowledge and shear genius behind some of the special projects listed in this book. Volume II deals with programming languages, the early ones and applications that were state-of-the-art back then in the day. Some of which have changed the way we view medicine, education and research.
Back then they were even talking about machines that were programmed to program themselves. The first volume explained what AI was, how it worked and the theories behind it. The Third volume talks about models of cognition, deduction, sensors, vision, inductive inference and the use of AI in planning and problem solving; all this is totally fascinating stuff indeed.