Re: Unboxed - When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of Wonder - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Larry Press <lpress () csudh edu>
Date: September 9, 2008 4:34:35 PM EDT
To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  Unboxed - When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of  
Wonder - NYTimes.com

> Today's military funding is very
> different from the way Project MAC was supported back in the 60s: we
> had hundreds of folks, working without detailed direction from
> Washington, and we wrote one progress report a year.  More
> importantly, military research is now much less interested in long-
> term projects: they want results that will help the current wars.


I was at the System Development Corporation Research Directorate in  
those days, using the Q-32 TSS for AI, and there were anti-war posters  
on walls as well as "loose lips sink ships" posters.  I refused to pay  
income tax or to apply for security clearance, but that did not seem  
to bother anyone.  If I had to go into a restricted area, a secretary  
escorted me without fuss, and the payroll department cheerfully  
garnisheed my pay on behalf of the IRS, again, without comment.

I had an aunt who used to berate me for working for ARPA, but I  
rationalized that the stuff I was doing seemed far from application at  
the time.  In retrospect, those "concept formation" and "induction"  
systems were what they call "data mining" today.

Larry





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