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\F1\CJan 30,1980



Mark Davis, Editor-in-Chief
The Santa Clara 
Santa Clara  University


Dear Mark:

\JI am putting together an undergraduate special topics course
--EECS 129-- to be given in the spring term. It has the rather bizarre
purpose of getting Humanities, Sciences, Arts, and Engineering people
to talk to one another. It expects to show some that they don't know
as much about computing as they might think, and expects to show
others that they know more than they thought. As part of the "P. R."
compaign I'd like to write some articles for \F2The
Santa Clara\F1 about personal computing
and its relation to the University in particular and Society in general.
As slight background I'm enclosing a short blurb about the course --a draft,
and not for publication.


Is such a request  looked  on with favor?
\.
\←L\→S\←R\-L\/'2;\+L\→L

Yours sincerely,


John R. Allen. Lecturer
EECS Dept.
(408) 984-4358

\←S\→L
			 Computing and Duck Soup

			      by John Allen 
			Lecturer, EECS Department

There's an old Sufi story in which  a guest comes to the Mulla  Nasrudin's
house, bringing with him a duck. They cook and eat the duck and the  guest
departs. In  the ensuing  months a  constant stream  of visitors  appears,
saying " I am a friend, of a friend,  of a ... of the man who brought  you
the duck". Each expects and receives a dinner and then departs.   Finally,
in exasperation  one  day,  when  faced  with  yet  another  "friend-of-a"
Nasrudin brings  the startled  individual a  bowl of  hot water.   "What's
this?", the disappointed "guest" asks. Nasrudin replies:"It's the soup  of
the soup of the soup of the duck your friend brought to me".

If you feel  your spring  program has  a bit  too much  "duck soup",  then
perhaps EECS129 is for you.

This spring, in the EECS department,  I will offer a special topics  class
dealing with the computing phenomenon and  its impact on our culture.   It
is not a "computer  literacy" course in the  traditional sense of "How  to
get good  vibes from  your keyboard";  neither is  it a  traditional  EECS
course.  There's something here to offend everyone.

It is self-contained  study of  the fundamental  principles of  computing.
There's programming; experience with personal computers, issues of  style,
ethics,  and   aesthetics,   there's  Artificial   Intelligence,   there's
philosophy and cultural issues, and generally exciting hard work.  It is a
whirlwind tour through  the next ten  years our computer-related  society.
As a preview guided tour through this maze, I will be writing a series  of
columns, discussing  some of  the material  that will  be covered  in  the
course.

We will look at:  personal computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI),  LOGO,
Smalltalk, LISP,  Rubik's Cube,  Robert  Pirsig, Doug  Hofstadter,  Oswald
Spengler, and Seymour Papert. A strange mixture indeed.

LISP, LOGO, and Smalltalk are  programming languages of a quite  different
nature than one finds in typical computing languages.  LISP is the premier
language for artificial intelligence  and spiritual ancestor of  Smalltalk
and LOGO.   These latter  two languages  are powerful  personal  computing
language developed to  make the  computer accessible to  "children of  all
ages".

Rubik's Cube is the mind-bending puzzle,  whose solution exists as a  LISP
program, complete with a color graphics solution on a LISP Machine.

Hofstadter wrote the Pulitzer Prize  winning "Godel, Escher, Bach".   This
work relates  logic, art,  and music  in a  interesting journey  into  the
recursive world.  Hofstadter and  the LISP machine  will get together  for
the March issue  of Scientific  American; its subject?   Rubik's Cube,  of
course! Watch for it.

Pirsig, the author of "Zen and  the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance",  deals
with the issuse of quality and its relationship to art and science.

And Seymour  Papert? He  authored  "Mindstorms: Computers,  Children,  and
Powerful Ideas",  a  LOGO-based tour  through  the visions  that  personal
computing has in store for the  coming generations.  If you think  Pascal,
BASIC, and/or Fortran are what computing's about, you're in for a shock!

"Zen" and "Mindstorms" are the texts for the course.  I told you it wasn't
the usual "solder-my-fingers-and-punch-my-card" EECS course.


"The Decline  of  the West"  by  Spengler? This  is  a  "meta-Hofstatder",
discussing the  rise and  fall of  Cultures  in terms  of their  vison  of
mathematics, art, music, and almost everything else.  This two-volume work
will be available for exploration by those who get bored with the rest  of
the course.