Bert Rutan was able to accomplish, on his own, something formerly done only by governments.

Citizen Jimserac
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On Dec 29, 5:31 am, Tamas K Papp wrote: > On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:03:00 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote: > > gavino wrote: > >> why is there not a lisp pc for under $300? > > There once were lisp machines, in the 1980s. Look up "lisp machine" in > > wikipedia for some interesting history. > I have a Dell laptop. It runs Lisp. That makes it a Lisp PC. NOT EVEN CLOSE!! Gavino has a point and implies something, I think, which I will try to extrapolate on. In the world of the future as we envisioned it in the 60's and early 70's, there would be hotels on the moon, intelligent HAL like computers and like science fiction staple advancements. In reality, while in the realm of computer hardware, such advances occured on time or even ahead of "schedule" many of the other things are not even close to happening. Why not? Some will say because the problems were far harder than originally understood. That is true up to a point, I agree. But there is much more - I believe the misappropriation and misapplication of government funds, the politicization of research, the dangerously subversive and unproductive influence of the lobbyists and the deliberate quelling of the American futuristic imagination and desire after the Vietnam war are some of the more real factors involved in the inequality between expectation and reality that actually happened. Likewise, if the organizational difficulties endured by Dr. Schelter were any example, the entire foundations of research and development infrastructure in this country need to be seriously rebuilt if we are ever to hope to return to the post Sputnik era of high developement attainments over relatively short periods of time. The obstructions ... and obstructors are many. Observe the appalling mismanagement at NASA and the obvious directions of the future when Bert Rutan was able to accomplish, on his own, something formerly done only by governments. The prize was a measly million dollars. One wonders what he could have accomplished with $20 million or 50 million - large sums of money but a pittance to the budget. I think it was only recently that the software involved in the LEM guidance was released to the public domain, something that properly should have been done decades ago. AND, TONS of code and research remain locked up by NASA and subcontractors that, although declassified, requires $$$ to obtain. Inexcusable since much of it was written on the taxpayers own tab. Observe the appalling waste of money on cancer "research" - yes some breakthroughs over the years, even major ones, but how much of that money is being wasted, one wonders, on barking up the wrong tree in the wrong forest for the wrong reasons. See "The Secret History of the War on Cancer" by Davis for details. Think of the impact that freely available Lisp Machine and Symbolics type software would have on these activities! Citizen Jimserac
More options Dec 29, 12:59 pm
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
From: Citizen Jimserac
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:59:25 -0800 (PST)
Local: Tues, Dec 29 2009 12:59 pm
Subject: Re: why is there not a lisp pc?
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On Dec 29, 5:31 am, Tamas K Papp wrote:

> On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:03:00 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > gavino wrote:
> >> why is there not a lisp pc for under $300?

> > There once were lisp machines, in the 1980s. Look up "lisp machine" in
> > wikipedia for some interesting history.

> I have a Dell laptop. It runs Lisp. That makes it a Lisp PC.

NOT EVEN CLOSE!!

Gavino has a point and implies something, I think, which I will try to
extrapolate on.

In the world of the future as we envisioned it in the 60's and early
70's, there would be hotels on the moon, intelligent HAL like
computers and like science fiction staple advancements.

In reality, while in the realm of computer hardware, such advances
occured on time or even ahead of "schedule" many of the other things
are not even close to happening. Why not?

Some will say because the problems were far harder than originally
understood. That is true up to a point, I agree.

But there is much more - I believe the misappropriation and
misapplication of government funds, the politicization of research,
the dangerously subversive and unproductive influence of the lobbyists
and the deliberate quelling of the American futuristic imagination and
desire after the Vietnam war are some of the more real factors
involved in the inequality between expectation and reality that
actually happened. Likewise, if the organizational difficulties
endured by Dr. Schelter were any example, the entire foundations of
research and development infrastructure in this country need to be
seriously rebuilt if we are ever to hope to return to the post
Sputnik era of high developement attainments over relatively short
periods of time. The obstructions ... and obstructors are many.

Observe the appalling mismanagement at NASA and the obvious directions
of the future when Bert Rutan was able to accomplish, on his own,
something formerly done only by governments. The prize was a measly
million dollars. One wonders what he could have accomplished with $20
million or 50 million - large sums of money but a pittance to the
budget.
I think it was only recently that the software involved in the LEM
guidance was released to the public domain, something that properly
should have been done decades ago. AND, TONS of code and research
remain locked up by NASA and subcontractors that, although
declassified, requires $$$ to obtain. Inexcusable since much of it
was written on the taxpayers own tab.

Observe the appalling waste of money on cancer "research" - yes some
breakthroughs over the years, even major ones, but how much of that
money is being wasted, one wonders, on barking up the wrong tree in
the wrong forest for the wrong reasons. See "The Secret History of
the War on Cancer" by Davis for details.

Think of the impact that freely available Lisp Machine and Symbolics
type software would have on these activities!

Citizen Jimserac