> If Lisp/Smalltalk (and their significant predecessors) have 
> contributed so much to computing - and so long ago - wouldn't 
> you think that someone, somewhere, is developing the next 
> significant contribution(s)?

No, but I'd hope.  I'm not old enough to say much, but when I started
studying where all the cool things were, I found my way back to Lisp and
Smalltalk very quickly, it seems that other languages have contributed very
little that these languages hadn't already done, I think the past 20 years
or so have maybe been a programming dark age, all the progress has been in
hardware, not software.  How often these days does something like Zerox Park
happen, just turning lose a bunch of brilliant guys to build whatever they
can, and letting them throw it out and start over a couple of times to get
it right?

> What R&D (or just plain "D") is currently in the labs that 
> you feel will be a significant contribution to computing in 
> the near future? (I know... tough question if the work is in 
> a secret lab. And, who can predict the future?)

I think Ruby, as well as being interesting, has kicked Smalltalk in the ass,
forcing it to start changing, is Traits not a direct response to ruby's
mixins?  Ruby seems an interesting mix between Smalltalk and Lisp,
definitely something to keep an eye on.  Croquet, along the lines of E,
brings concurrency into the language, a very interesting thing imho, I'm
looking forward to see what that becomes and how it affects other
Smalltalks.  I think type inferencing has a place in whatever the cool
language is.  .Net, not any of the languages, but the runtime, provides a
common type system and object model, that many languages can share, I find
that rather interesting, especially as more dynamic languages get ported to
work with it, such as the recent IronPython.  

> 
> merely a funding issue? Are schools at fault (I've also heard 
> Alan lambaste Stanford regarding their Java
> curriculum) ? 

As he should, teaching Java in the schools makes the schools little more
than a vocational school, and kills interesting research, which he so
bluntly pointed out (I dug that).

Squeak, as far as I can tell, is the new Smalltalk, it seems to be the base
that new stuff it attempted on.  Traits is certainly a huge language change,
and it has just been included, pragma's were also recently added, something
I think gained popularity in .Net, then Java.  I'm not sure what else is
coming, but it's sure fun watching it happen.