  This is an expanded version of a write-up of a talk given in the fall of 2000
in Oberwolfach. A large part of it is intended to be understandable by
non-number theorists with a mathematical background. The talk covered some of
the history, results and ideas connected with Artin's celebrated primitive root
conjecture dating from 1927. In the update several new results established
after 2000 are also discussed.
