Subject: Knuth

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 15:02:12 +0200

A while ago there was a discussion here on whether Knuth was god, and things
of that sort :) Some of you would be happy to know that a similar thread just
started on slashdot (www.slashdot.org), filled with Knuth anecdotes and "is
Knuth god" jokes ;)

Anyway, what started that thread was the announcement of a Knuth lecture that
appeared in print in this month's Notices of the AMS (AMS="American
Mathematical Society"). Many of you will probably want to check the online
copy at:
	http://www.ams.org/notices/200203/fea-knuth.pdf

In that lecture, Knuth answers questions from the audience about various
issues (from whether P=NP to software patents), and some of his answers are
quite illuminating. I especially liked his discussion of Golbach's congecture
and whether it is possible that a certain theorem is true but will never be
proved, and his discussion of software patents.

Some short quotes from the lecture (but you should read the whole thing :)):

	"[Knuth] currently holds the title of Professor Emeritus of the Art
         of Computer Programming [at Stanford]."

        "In the 1960s, if I wrote a joint paper with my advisor Marshall Hall,
         it meant that he did the theory and I did the programming. But if I
         wrote a paper with anybody else, it meant that I did the theory and
         the other person did the programming."

        "I think letting users know that you welcome reports of errors is
         one important technique that could be used in the software industry.
         I think Microsoft should say, 'You'll get a check from Bill Gates
         every time you find an error.'"

        "It might very well be that the conjecture happens to be true, but
         there is no rigorous way to prove it."

        "I can't go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at
         the fonts on the menu."

        "[about encryption and privacy] I'm a religious person, and I think
         that God knows all my secrets, so I always feel that whatever I'm
         thinking is public knowledge in some way."

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |        Sunday, Mar 17 2002, 4 Nisan 5762
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Are you still here? The message is over.
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |Shoo! Go away!

---

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 07:56:10 +0200 (IST)

> started on slashdot (www.slashdot.org), filled with Knuth anecdotes and "is

Seems like I did not invent the "Knuth is/is not God" paradigm. I
especially liked this joke I found there:

<<<
Richard M. Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and Donald E. Knuth
engage in a discussion on whose impact on the computerized world was the
greatest.

Stallman: "God told me I have programmed the best editor in
   the world!"

Torvalds: "Well, God told *me* that I have programmed the
   best operating system in the world!"

Knuth: "Wait, wait - I never said that."

I started reading the lecture.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

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