Hal Abelson Quotes

• If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.
• Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement
• In the Middle Ages people built cathedrals, where the whole town would get together and make a thing that's greater than any individual person could do and the society would kind of revel in that. We don't do that as much anymore, but in a sense this is kind of like building a cathedral.
• Anything which uses science as part of its name isn't: political science, creation science, computer science.
• 'What's important is not just to develop the technology; it's to develop the processes.'
• 'It is not that there is some magic technology. It is what are you going to do with it?'
• Universities are meant to pass the torch of civilization.'
• 'Giving it away helps defuse complex intellectual property issues of ownership and control that can distract the universities from their missions to disseminate knowledge.' - commmenting on MIT's Open Courseware program
• Turtle Geometry: The Computer as a Medium for Exploring Mathematics (1981)
• Logo for the Apple II (1982)
• Apple Logo (1982)
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (1985)
• Logo for the Macintosh: An Introduction through Object Logo (1992)
• Architects of the Information Society (1999) - edited by with Simson L. Garfinkel

hal abelson