Hal Abelson

Hal Abelson, 2007

Hal Abelson (born April 26, 1947) is the Class of 1992 Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the MIT, and a fellow of the IEEE. He holds an A.B. degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from MIT.

Sourced

• If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.
  • Source: Public Knowledge - Hal Abelson; also quoted in Vortex dynamics in thin films of amorphous Mo77Ge23, 1998, p. 6
    • Abelson attributes this thought to his Princeton roommate Jeff Goll

• Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement
  • Source: anusf.anu.edu.au - MIT job advertisement

• 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.
  • Source: Auditing Classes at M.I.T. - New York Times Interview, pg. 1

• Anything which uses science as part of its name isn't: political science, creation science, computer science.
  • Source: The Nature of Belief

• What’s important is not just to develop the technology; it’s to develop the processes.
  • Source: mitcet

• It is not that there is some magic technology. It is what are you going to do with it?
  • Source: mitcet

• Universities are meant to pass the torch of civilization.
  • Source: MIT's maverick view of intellectual property worth considering

• 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
  • Source: MIT's maverick view of intellectual property worth considering

• [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.
  • Source: Introductory lecture to Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

• 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.
  • Source: Lecture on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

External links

• Abelson's MIT Website
• Hal Abelson - concise biography with many useful links with additional resources
• Selected Publications
• Intellectual Property, Copyrights, and Universities - an interview with Hal Abelson
• Tcl for Web Nerds - short programming web tutorial authored in part by Abelson
• Response by Hal Abelson - reaction to Gerry Sussman's paper on Open Implementation
• "Building the Infrastructure for Sustainable Educational Transformation" - MIT article concerning the Open Courseware program
• "MIT's maverick view of intellectual property worth considering" - Abelson gives his thoughts on MIT's new Open Courseware program and implications
• Biography on Jewish Software web site