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Hal Abelson Quotes

Harold "Hal" Abelson is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , and a founding director of both Creative Commons and the Free Software Foundation.

He directed the first implementation of the language Logo for the Apple II, which made the language widely available on personal computers starting in 1981; and published a widely selling book on Logo in 1982. Together with Gerald Jay Sussman, Abelson developed MIT's introductory computer science subject, The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs , a subject organized around the idea that a computer language is primarily a formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology, rather than just a way to get a computer to perform operations. Abelson and Sussman also cooperate in codirecting the MIT Project on Mathematics and Computation. The MIT OpenCourseWare project was spearheaded by Abelson and other MIT faculty.

Abelson led an internal investigation of the school's choices and role in the prosecution of Aaron Swartz by the Federal Bureau of Investigation , which concluded that MIT did nothing wrong legally, but recommended that MIT consider changing some of its internal policies. Wikipedia  

✵ 29. April 1947
Hal Abelson photo
Hal Abelson: 11   quotes 0   likes

Famous Hal Abelson Quotes

“What’s important is not just to develop the technology; it’s to develop the processes.”

Hal Abelson

Source: mitcet http://www.edpath.com/mitcet.htm

“Universities are meant to pass the torch of civilization.”

Hal Abelson

Source: MIT's maverick view of intellectual property worth considering http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA18.01C.hendricks0318.768fcaac.html

“Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement”

Hal Abelson

Source: anusf.anu.edu.au http://anusf.anu.edu.au/~drw900/quotes.html - MIT job advertisement

“Anything which uses science as part of its name isn't: political science, creation science, computer science.”

Hal Abelson

Source: The Nature of Belief http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/sept97/0213.html

“It is not that there is some magic technology. It is what are you going to do with it?”

Hal Abelson

Source: mitcet http://www.edpath.com/mitcet.htm

Hal Abelson Quotes

“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.”

Hal Abelson

Source: Auditing Classes at M.I.T. http://education.mit.edu/tep/11125/opencourse/ - New York Times Interview, pg. 1

People , Age , Sense , Personality

“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”

Hal Abelson

Source: MIT's maverick view of intellectual property worth considering http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA18.01C.hendricks0318.768fcaac.html

Knowledge , Universe , Help

“[Computer science] is not really about computers -- and it's not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not about microscopes and Petri dishes…and geometry isn't really about using surveying instruments. Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments: when some field is just getting started and you don't really understand it very well, it's very easy to confuse the essence of what you're doing with the tools that you use.”

Hal Abelson

Source: Introductory lecture to Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLUPjefuWA

Understanding , Thinking , Sense , Science

“If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.”

Hal Abelson

Abelson attributes this thought to his Princeton roommate Jeff Goll
Source: Public Knowledge - Hal Abelson http://www.publicknowledge.org/about/who/board/abelson; also quoted in Vortex dynamics in thin films of amorphous Mo77Ge23, 1998, p. 6

“See, in general, as systems designers, you’re forced with necessity to make decisions about how you’re going to do things, and in general, the way you’d like to retain flexibility is to never make up your mind about anything until you’re forced to do it. The problem is, there’s a very, very narrow line between deferring decisions and outright procrastination. So you’d like to make progress, but also at the same time, never be bound by the consequences of your decisions.”

Hal Abelson

Source: Lecture on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrFkf-T-6Co

Time , Problem , Decision , Way

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