There must be some analogies made to the much smaller field of chess computer programs.
From 1950s to about 1980 or so it was thought that the best computer chess program would approximate the way a human would think about the game. Botvinnik in particular was adamant that such an approach would be the right one.
However, most of the progress was made through brute force. Modern chess programs select moves in a way that is far removed from the way a good chessplayer selects moves, yet they can now produce games that seem very "uncomputer" like and "human".
From 1950s to about 1980 or so it was thought that the best computer chess program would approximate the way a human would think about the game. Botvinnik in particular was adamant that such an approach would be the right one.
However, most of the progress was made through brute force. Modern chess programs select moves in a way that is far removed from the way a good chessplayer selects moves, yet they can now produce games that seem very "uncomputer" like and "human".