/ ==================== / tue.oct.20011009 / ==================== /
16/ The Fourth Annual Lynford Lecture
Dr. Alan Kay  - Pioneer of the Modern Personal Computer
Topic: The Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet!
Institute for Mathematics and Advanced Supercomputing ( IMAS )
Polytechnic University
Dibner Auditorium Five MetroTech Center Brooklyn, NY.
RSVP by Oct 4, 2001. Tel: 718.260.4016 or E-mail: mscalia@poly.edu

   I met Alan Kay back in the `80s and corresponded
   with him a few times . ( See  Low Down Objects  . )

  I was pleasantly surprised that he remembered me , and I updated him
  on the existence of Arthur Whitney's  K  and my  K.CoSy  created in it .
  He appeared to appreciate my description of working from with in the
  language , "upolstering" my environment , versus the current standard
  approach , including Arthur's own , of scripting from the "outside" .

  After the lecture , on the way out , I commented to him how radically
  different my interest in ultimate notation was from his goal of
  making math simple enough for children to see .

  I also pointed out that , even now , I was the only one in the
  audience   with my computer with me  . 


/1525/ /1610/ David Chang President :  Last : Bill Joy .
 Jeffrey Lynford : Wellsford Real Properties :  Fellow students ,
 Previous speakers : Ed Whitten : string theory , Craig Venter DNA ,
 Bil Joy , Sun ; now  Kay : Bkln Tek Highschool :
 Smalltalk . garnered financial support from leading corps .
 all understanding starts from our not .
 Shasha book on heads .  Children interface . Piaget . transitional objects :
  teddy bear .  learn from experimentation .
Tom Morgan - Keyspan energy - heard AK a decade ago . Learned lot ..
David Chudnovsky : presentation if IMAS award .
/1620/ Alan Kay : always give same talk . try to have better show .
 Predict the future by bending it .  40 year old ideas .
 science power thru anti-dogmatic . 17th century change to sharing
 understanding rather than individual claim total credit . Corporations
 don't yet understand point .
  Guttenberg - 250 characters in font . hand illuminated bibles .
 books incredibly cheap . Aldus Lucius - small books -
 portable library 40 books to fit saddle bags . only few $100 in todays
 money . Can't afford to lose our computers yet -- drop in pool .
 Page numbers not until 1516 - 60 years . previously - to 1700s repeated
 last 2 words on one page onto start of next . Erasmus . page numbers to
 refer back to previously said things . logical chains .
 1950 - commercial computing .  McLuhan : "children are the messages we send
 into future" . they are the future . Harvard grads don't know why summer
 from winter . [ believe orbital excentricity rather than axis tilt ]
 21 of 23 reveal misconceptions of seasons and moon phases . Apparently
 major in Confidence 101 . MIT grads flunked same ?s in 60s after sputnik .
 Had old style common sense - no understanding outide exact lessons .
 cave people w atomic weapons .  or Yale degrees .
 Business people - tribal - win at all cost .
 Head hunting on scooters in Borneo - slaughter immigrants .
 0911 act of mad man - but we all are mad .
 Paper Clip mfgr covicted of forced Labor - slavery  in China .
 McLuhen : "I don't know who invented water but it wasn't a fish" .
 One of our draw backs is how easily we abstract .
 Talmud : We see things not as they are but as We are .
 Science as mapping bunny with hand shadows . [ tinge of Plato ]
 Distinguish between true and real . Languages only about themselves .
 Best we can have is good map within our heads of reality .
 Dangerous to teach kids how to reason w/o teaching them science .
 Science keeps us sane - the map correct .  Korsbiki[sp] : most are unsane .
  Arthur Koestler : the act of creation . ant on 2D plane . splated from above .
 AK : When you have an idea - take a nap .  Blue idea ( eurika )
  not necessariy correct .
  may cause laughter - from missed simplicity - universe remains unchanged .
  It takes almost as much creative effort to understand a really new idea as
  it does to originally create it .
 Mainframes were ugly huge expensive "logically small" .
 Ivan Sutherlad principled graphics , Doug Englebart : NLS - hypertext .
 Wes Clark LINC - 1962 .  $20k .
 Schopenhour : new ideas rejected as work of mad man .
 Moore's law . Arpanet not central control .
 5E6 base proteins of 3000 types spin @ 1E6 rpm . lipids in cell membrane
 exchange w 8 or 10M % sec .  Human thumb - 1E9 cells .
 no cells older than about 7 yrs .  We are a pattern moving thru time
 and space . Internet totally recycled at least 2x w/o ever being turned off .
 From Algol ->  Simula :  from gears to biology . split into little computers .
 Gospers : stupid programming structures .
 FLEX machine .  GRAIL .
 Seymore Papert - LOGO turtles . Zen & art of computing  : the music is not
 in the piano .   circle - 1.5 derivatives : TO CIRCLE , REPEAT 5 TIMES .
 change constant .
 Dynabook . 1968 - instrument whose music is ideas - meta media .
 Maria Montesorri : since 80k BC - need 21 century toys to learn thru play .
  seeking uncommon sense .
 Shinichi Suzuki violin . - learn music as language as kid .
  art comes from inner character so goal is to develop character .
 Don't "get" math if teach it as pattern matching .
 McLuhen : steer into future by looking in rear view mirror .
 Tom Osborn HP-35  Bill Hewlett - must fit in shirt pocket -
  so staff made him shirts with pockets it would fit in .
 $700 , stolen after 2 weeks . Elated : finally someone made computer which
 was small enough to be stolen .
 Icons , Bruner mutiple mentalities .
 Alto - `72-3 . Smalltalk in schools . invented personal computing for
 kids .
 Best way to predict future is invent it .
 Not using PowerPoint . Using freeware which runs on 23 platforms .
  Object Insights . `66 thru 2001 - 3d . [ Neat 3d motion gui ]
 Meaningful Math : greatest sin to teach math with out understanding why .
  ( steering wheel ratio divisor example )
 bouncing atoms with infection process .
 Real world <+> Math -> Science .
 Dave Evans was thesis advisor at UT . This demo required 6M$ computer
 decade ago .
/1745/ Real computing revolution : when can read & write code .
 [ That's what my persuit of CoSy is all about . ]
  the hackers site :
  Alan's very impressive demo software : 
 Multiple project interface .  hyperlink thru sequence of projects .
  Squeak.org  since `96 .  Free .
  Squeakland  . metahypercard .
 At Apple learned unbelievable amount of support needed for 4M people .
 Math teachers don't know calc much less dif geo .
 Tom Paine's common sense . .2 can read . .17 is top 2 standard deviations
 Reality a low pass filter . had visitors at PARC thought work on Personal
 Computing totally nuts . /1758/