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Re: Pork addicts are pathetic losers
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To: steve@method.com
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Subject: Re: Pork addicts are pathetic losers
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From: qobi@uvm-gen.emba.uvm.edu
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Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 18:29:00 GMT
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Cc: Byron_Davies@mesaqm.sps.mot.com, all-ai@ai.mit.edu, www-cl@ai.mit.edu, clim@bbn.com, common-lisp@ai.sri.com, slug@ai.sri.com, alu@ai.sri.com, lisp-users@media.mit.edu, unplugged@folly.org, digitool@digitool.com
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In-Reply-To: <v03007802af38ca0fa78e@[206.100.125.26]> (message from Steve Strassmann on Tue, 25 Feb 1997 12:26:16 -0500)
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Reply-To: Qobi@uvm-gen.emba.uvm.edu
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Sender: owner-www-cl@ai.mit.edu
I too am one of the strongest supporters of Lisp. If you know me at all, you
know this. And I am undecided about whether government support for Lisp is a
good or bad thing. But the general notion that government support is bad and
that only market-viable things that should survive is just plain ludicrous.
Throughout all of history, almost all great musicians, mathematicians,
scientists, and philosophers were government funded. (Or they were paupers. Or
they were self-funded aristocracy like J. J. Thompson.) Mozart, Lagrange,
Archimedes, and Aristotle were all court musicians, mathematicians,
scientists, and philosophers. They would not have been able to contribute what
they did without the support of the government of their time. If you think
about it, none of Western cultural and intellectual heritage was market viable
at the time of its inception. Historically, it appears that the truely great
contributions developed in spite of market forces against them due to the
investment and protection of wise and benevolent leaders.
Jeff (home page http://www.emba.uvm.edu/~qobi)
References: