Not to be confused with John von Neumann
Peter Neumann has died
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#12The mailing list style and his personal web page tells me all that I need to do (And if you don't get it, you wouldn't get it)
It feels as though an entire era is fading day by day
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#13Bookmark this link for future reference, it is very relevant in the era of “agentic engineering”
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#14Bookmark this link for future reference, it is very relevant in the era of “agentic engineering” https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1005937.1005938
> Although there is an element of apparent sloppiness in many creative people, discipline is also required. (Note that time-sharing has been condemned by some as encouraging sloppiness, as opposed to batch processing [where sloppiness can be exceedingly costly in time and computing resources]. Perhaps time-sharing could actually encourage creativity, although there is the countering argument that computers intrinsically stifle creativity.) Similarly, diversity of experience also appears to be extremely important (e.g., [Sheppard]); the perspective afforded by familiarity with a variety of systems, subsystems, programming languages, and methodologies provides extremely valuable insights, especially where there is wide diversity (e.g., among TOPS-20, Multics, UNIX, and OS/370; SCRIBE, TEX, PUB and ROFF; Pascal-based languages and LISP; a formal methodology/specification language and conventional design).
I will think “Agentic Engineering” is the “time-sharing” of our time. Embrace it.
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#15Not to be confused with John von Neumann
he has died as well
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#16Neumann had a tremendous impact on perception and curation of technology-related risks. His passing is a moment of sadness.
It wasn't unforeseeable, however, and it pains me to see on the Catless RISKS archive this note: "I'm sad to have to tell you that Peter Neumann died on the 17th May. This website will be here as long as I am able to maintain it, but whether or not there is any future RISKS content anywhere, I cannot say."
https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/>
Death is a risk, but not an inconceivable one, and it's a reminder that whilst a single individual can often drive with singular vision and surprising efficacy a project, that if they fail to establish some broader foundation, that project dies with them.
I'd noted this myself, in this context, several years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37582242>.
I continue to hope that RISKS may survive Peter.
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#17Bookmark this link for future reference, it is very relevant in the era of “agentic engineering” https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/1005937.1005938
> Although there is an element of apparent sloppiness in many creative people, discipline is also required. (Note that time-sharing has been condemned by some as encouraging sloppiness, as opposed to batch processing [where sloppiness can be exceedingly costly in time and computing resources]. Perhaps time-sharing could actually encourage creativity, although there is the countering argument that computers intrinsica…
If you ignore the health, ethical, social, moral, legal, financial, environmental issues then yeah you could embrace it I suppose.
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#18Impressive that Neumann moderated RISKS for 41 years in addition to all of his other achievements. His contributions were valuable to us all
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#19Sometime in the 2000s I started reading the RISKS Digest mailing list[1] from the beginning. I did it for fun - it's an interesting mix of fun anecdotes and lessons learned, and the 80's and early 90's were before my time which I found interesting too. A side effect of reading the mailing list in bulk is that a set of common "stereotypes" of failure (for lack of a better word) start to emerge clearly from the stream…
Fun How long do you think that took you?
Re: Peter Neumann has died
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Although there is an element of apparent sloppiness in many creative people, discipline is also required. (Note that time-sharing has been condemned by some as encouraging sloppiness, as opposed to batch processing [where sloppiness can be exceedingly costly in time and computing resources]. Perhaps time-sharing could actually encourage creativity, although there is the countering argument that computers intrinsica…
If you ignore the health, ethical, social, moral, legal, financial, environmental issues then yeah you could embrace it I suppose.
By "embracing" I mean embracing the coming storm and survive it, facing the challenge and admit it is not magically going away.