John McCarthy Has Died

Post by jc4p » Mon, Oct 24, 2011, 10:25 PM UTC

redthrowaway wrote: post #119

TruthElixirX wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually, I think, there will cease to be icons within the industry. What we have now are the people who invented the internet/computers and the basic components. The people who are doing the inventing now are just as smart, but they aren't creating fundamental things, they are improving on an existing system. We don't say, "engineer team y invented the iCore series of processors." we sort of just say "Intel is com…

Between Gates, Zuckerberg, Larry and Sergey, Torvalds, RMS, Knuth, and a few others, there're still plenty of icons left and so I don't forsee your scenario happening anytime soon. I am generally an optimist, and think the number of icons to come is far greater than those who have come and gone.

Post by cies » Mon, Oct 24, 2011, 10:31 PM UTC

shrikant wrote: post #109

Well shit. I said it about a week back [1] (maybe a little indelicate, but in my defence, was a little over-wrought): The technology pioneers who were in their 20s/30s in the the 60s/70s are now really old. The next few years will likely see a bloodbath. Granted, he wasn't that young in those times, but the point holds. We're going to see a bunch of luminaries 'move on' in the coming months :( [1] https://twitter.com…

Post by dlss » Mon, Oct 24, 2011, 10:36 PM UTC

foenix wrote: post #106

0x12 wrote: post #92

What a pity. I sense a black bar coming. The last few weeks have been terrible, one icon after another has fallen. What is different from other fields is that computing is still a young enough field that almost all of its luminaries except for the earliest ones are still alive. I fear the avalanche has only barely begun, and at some point the frequency of these will become high enough that either we will stop to noti…

Death is the only guarantee in life and in fact is necessary for human ecology. I too am deeply saddened by this loss, but am supremely grateful that a man like John McCarthy was able to contribute to the humanity's knowledge. May his work be the foundation in many more advances in human understanding, and may his void be filled by someone who respects this journey. RIP, John.

Post by Jach » Mon, Oct 24, 2011, 10:43 PM UTC

Post by ORioN63 » Mon, Oct 24, 2011, 10:59 PM UTC