A stupid newbie question

Alan Kay Alan.Kay at squeakland.org
Wed Oct 10 12:25:39 UTC 2001


Ken --

Monads did have some influence on my thinking --  though it's pretty 
clear that Squeak is quite Platonic in its structure (too Platonic in 
my opinion).

Cheers,

Alan

-----------

At 7:37 PM -0700 10/9/01, Ken Kahn wrote:
>Justin Walsh wrote:
>>
>>  I tend to want to agree with you: kill off Kens analogy but, there  must
>be
>>  something significant in that an ordinary, commonse person like Ken  would
>>  use (imply) such analogies: domination and Darwinian survival of the
>>  fittest, assumptions like mammaliam superiority over dinosaurs,
>development
>>  etc (when dinosaurs had attained intelligence and flight). Perhaps I've
>>  missed the irony?
>>  I don't like the idea of Squeak becoming merely a popular rabies infected
>>  rodent.
>>  Anyway if there has to be a battle at all, I prefer it be in the realm of
>>  mere abstract ideas and computer simulation than in concrete.  Tragicaly
>it
>>  doesn't end there.
>>
>
>I used to believe that programming languages could compete and succeed in
>the realm of abstract ideas. I've seen too many good languages die and too
>many bad languages succeed to maintain that belief. Economics, social,
>psychological, and ecological factors, and marketing seem to matter more.
>
>>  This extract was published in 1781. It influenced Dewey and Piaget who in
>>  turn influenced Alan Kay.
>>  Unfortunately very few have properly studied him or even Alan Kay for that
>>  matter.
>>
>I read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason about 25 years ago and don't see the
>relevance. Please elaborate.
>
>On the topic of pre-computational philosophers, Liebnitz's monads seem have
>some connection with object-oriented programming.
>
>Best,
>
>-ken kahn ( www.toontalk.com )


-- 




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