_Machine Beauty_: Science and Art Out of the Closet

Natasha V. More (natasha@extropic-art.com)
Sat, 28 Feb 1998 18:44:12 -0600


David Gelernter (Yale University computer science professor) has a new book
out and with it comes science and art. The book is titled _Machine Beauty_
and brings to light Gelernter's views about science, art and the machine.

"If the author [Gelernter] had his way, all computer scientists and software
engineers would be rushed off to crash courses in drawing, design, and art
history ...." (Jackson, "BusinessWeek" magazine, 3/2/98 issue.)

You can read "Wired" article about David Gelernter
http://www.wired.com/wired/5.02/lifestreams/index.html;

and also at http://www.townhall.com/pff/aspen96/gelernter.html:

"David Gelernter's research interests include parallel programming, software
ensembles, and artificial intelligence. The coordination language called
"Linda" that he developed with Nicholas Carriero (also of Yale) sees fairly
widespread use world-wide for parallel programming. Linda and its central
idea, called "tuple spaces", is the basis for the "JavaSpaces: extension to
Java recently outlined by JavaSoft; the goal of JavaSpaces is to "unify and
simplify," according to JavaSoft 's presentation at JavaOne -- Specifically
to unify object storage and inter-program communication, as in Linda.
Gelernter's current research interests include adaptive parallelism (the
"Piranha" system runs parallel programs by grabbing idle workstation cycles,
releasing machines when their owners need them), programming environments
for parallelism, realtime data fusion, and expert databases. He is co-author
of two textbooks (on programming languages and on parallel programming
methods), author of Mirror Worlds (Oxford: 1991) and a forthcoming book
about how thinking works (Free Press)."

Natasha Vita More [fka Nancie Clark] - natasha@extropic-art.com
Transhumanist Art - Extropic Art at www.extropic-art.com
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