Man and the ComputerJohn Kemeny
Man and the Computer
by John Kemeny · first published 1972
8mentions
5recommended by
5HN commenters
2014–2026first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Introduces what computers are, how time sharing works, and the design thinking behind BASIC. It is a fantastic read and a good early look at man-computer interaction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…worked with computers under Feynman during the Manhattan Project. He argued for widespread computer literacy in the mid-1960's. He's worth reading about, for sure. I happened into a copy of Kemeny's book "Man and the Computer" (http://www.amazon.com/Man-Computer-John-Kemeny/dp/0684130432) sometime around 90-91, and it fascinated me. I've gone back and read it since and, while many of Kemeney's predictions didn't hold up, the…
on “BASIC at 50” ↗Good find, Dartmouth was the original BASIC for their mainframe timesharing, Apple and other micro variants came later. Speaking of, John G. Kemeny's book "Man and the Computer" is a fantastic read, introducing what computers are, how time sharing works, and the thinking behind the design of BASIC.
on “Can you complete the Oregon Trail if you wait at a river for 14272 years?” ↗Kemeny is an interesting fellow. He is part of the duo responsible for the BASIC language (at Dartmouth). I found his book "Man and the Computer" particularly prescient. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Kemeny https://archive.org/details/mancomputer00keme
on “Mathematics Without Numbers (1959)” ↗…https://groups.csail.mit.edu/medg/people/psz/Licklider.html * Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, by Douglas Engelbart (1962) - https://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html * Man and the Computer, John G. Kemeny - https://archive.org/details/mancomputerbyjoh0000john * The Extended Mind Thesis, Andy Clark and David Chalmers (1998) - https://www.alice.id.tue.nl/references/clark-chalmers-1998.p...…
on “Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny (1972 book by the co-creator of BASIC)” ↗…Learning To Program Your Computer In Basic With Sherlock Holmes" published in 1982. Write BASIC code to help Sherlock and Watson solve cases. They just don't make computer books like this any more. [4] "Man And The Computer" published in 1972, written by John Kemeny, one of the creators of Basic. Predicts the rise of home computers, the internet, Wikipedia, online news, and a bunch of other modern technologies decades before…
on “Show HN: The rarest tech books and docs you've probably never read” ↗Wow. fascinating insights he had. e.g. (amongst many others) Desk-Surface Display and Control: Certainly, for effective man-computer interaction, it will be necessary for the man and the computer to draw graphs and pictures and to write notes and equations to each other on the same display surface. The man should be able to present a function to the computer, in a rough but rapid fashion, by drawing…
on “LLM Wiki” ↗Kemeny was a really interesting guy. His obituary[1] gives some good background on him. I read his 1972 book, "Man and the Computer"[2], in the early 90s. Some of his predictions about how computers would be used in the future (ubiquitous networking, online shopping, etc) were spot-on. His idea of "mainframes" providing centralized…
on “Show HN: I wrote a BASIC interpreter in Go” ↗This is only tangentially related, but I've always thought it was interesting, so I point it out whenever it's applicable... John Kemmeny (one of the inventors of Basic) wrote a book in 1972, "Man and the Computer," summarizing the development of the computer up until that point, and making some predictions about the future. He was surprisingly accurate, and predicted the internet, online encyclopedias, computers…
on “Emacs-Helm development is now stalled” ↗