Some
publications of Les
Earnest
<les at cs.stanford.edu>
Les Earnest with 3D drawing of 6D hyper-cube
Biography
Biography of Les Earnest, Nov. 2009. An orderly summary of a random walk.
My life as a cog, Part 1, Matrix News, January 2000. Reviews encounters with advanced technology from age 2 to 22 and acquisition of an FBI record by age 12.
My
analog to digital conversion, August 2009.
In the 1950s I helped design the SAGE air defense system, which was a
technological marvel that included the first computer network. Unfortunately it
didn’t actually work but gave rise to a military-industrial-political complex
that has bilked
Civil Liberties
S*x, lies and politics: Part 4. Terrorists and the politicians who love them, 9/11/2001 On the morning of 9/11 I started writing the fourth article in a series aimed at restoring democracy in USA Cycling, the national governing body of bicycle racing that had been taken over by commercial interests in a thoroughly crooked way organized by a San Francisco investment banker. I was planning to post it in the Usenet newsgroup rec.bicycles.racing but as I was writing news came in about planes being hijacked by terrorists, and rammed into buildings so I switched topics and predicted the effects this would have on civil liberties. Unfortunately my predictions came true.
Computer History
John McCarthy (1927-2011), December 2011. John McCarthy introduced the term “artificial intelligence” to identify his principal interest and created the LISP programming language to help develop that field. He also initiated the mathematical theory of computation and the development of computer timesharing, which turned out to be a necessary precursor of the internet.
Blog
for the Celebration of John McCarthy’s accomplishments. Statements about the Celebration are posted here.
The first three spelling checkers, May 2011. The first spelling checker (1961) was part of the first cursive handwriting recognizer. The dictionary used in that system was used in two successive spelling checkers for text files and the latter spread around the world beginning in 1971 via the recently completed ARPAnet.
SAIL Reunion November
22, 2009 Announces a reunion of participants in projects of the
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL) in the 1966-80 time period together with participants in the modern SAIL.
Participants
in the November 21 Walkabout
Regrets from
some who can’t come
Medalists Those who were given “John McCarthy Awards for Excellence in Research and
Research Environments” and why. Old and new SAIL accomplishments.
SAIL Sagas Some stories about incidents involving early SAIL participants
Essay:
Optimism as Artificial Intelligence Pioneers Reunite by John Markoff, New York
Times,
Visible
legacies for Y3K proposes a scheme for the sustainable archiving of
SAIL
Blogging’s
roots reach to the ‘70s by Anne Broache and
Declan McCullagh,
Internet creation myths, July 2004, is an article under construction that deconstructs some myths about who invented the Internet.
SAIL Away, The Analytical Engine, May 1995. Reviews
spin-offs of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL) that helped
populate
DIALNET and home
computers, (with John McCarthy) Proc.
First West Coast Computer Faire,
The first ten years of artificial intelligence research at Stanford, (with John McCarthy, Edward Feigenbaum & Joshua Lederberg), Stanford University Report No. STAN-CS-74-409, July 1973. Summarizes research in computer vision and robotics (hand-eye systems and a robot vehicle), speech recognition, heuristic programming, representation theory, mathematical theory of computation, and modeling of organic chemical processes, all performed under a contract with the Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Ancillary projects included the development of a multi-processor timesharing system with display terminals on all desks, advanced programming languages (LISP and SAIL), the first interactive computer aided design system (SUDS) as well as research in higher mental functions, computer generated music and Mars picture processing.
Cycling
Cyclops USA, 1979-present. An irregular journal of bicycle racing and governance.
Bylaws and Racing Rules of the Federation of Independent Associations for Cycling (FIAC), 2002-present. As founding Treasurer, then Director and now Executive Director, drafted both the bylaws and racing rules of the upstart FIAC.
Bylaws of USA Cycling, 1994-1999. Prior to becoming a founding Director and
Secretary of
Bylaws of the National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA), 1989-1999. Drafted the NORBA bylaws after this organization was purchased by USCF in 1989 and drafted new ones prior to the formation of USA Cycling in 1994.
Bylaws and Racing Rules of the
Helmets
Modification to: Standard
Specification for Helmets used in Recreational Bicycling or Roller Skating,
Modification to: Standard
Specifications for Helmets used in Skateboarding and Trick Roller Skating,
Standard
Specification for Helmets used in Recreational Roller Skating,
Human-Computer Interface
Making
WYSIWYG characters shape up, Proc Protext IV Conf.,
A look back at an
office of the future, Decision
Support Systems: Issues and Challenges, Pergamon
Press,
Machine
recognition of cursive writing, IFIP Congress 1962 (
Military Command and Control Systems
E2A is worse than Y2K CACM July 2000. A wry look at Y2K doomsters, avaricious contractors and military acronymiacs.
Racial
Classification
Can computers cope with human
races? CACM, Feb. 1989. Reviews government ethnic and racial
classification schemes, which are scientific nonsense, and points out that a
scientifically rigorous classification scheme could be created based on
Radio Markers
Radio markers needed, Feb. 1965. I wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior advocating that roadside signs indicating points of interest and providing historical information be replaced by low powered radio systems providing this information so that motorists could get this information without pulling off the highway or trying to read the sign while driving by. I received a prompt favorable reply from a representative of the National Park Service (attached), but then nothing further happened, as usual. I believe that this proposal still makes sense and modern digital technology would substantially lower the cost of doing it. But will government authorities ever figure that out?
Robotics
Stanford Cart, August
2005. The Stanford Cart was born as a research platform for studying the
problem of controlling a Moon rover from Earth. It then was reconfigured as a
robot vehicle for research in visual navigation, then went into show business
for a few years. It now resides in a home for retired robots while awaiting a
comeback.
A
computer with hands, eyes and ears, (with John McCarthy, D. Raj Reddy and P. Vicens), AFIPS Vol. 33, (Proc. 1968 Fall Joint
Computer Conference),
Choosing
an eye for a computer, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. Memo
Software Distribution
Modular Software
Security,
Town of
Articles about the Town Los Altos Hills, the legal underpinnings of its pathway system and some public safety issues, most of which the City Council has consistently ignored.
Vehicle Dynamics
Kutta integration with error control, presented at ACM National Conference, 1956, proposes a way to numerically solve simultaneous differential equations, such as those used in flight simulation, by automatically adjusting time steps based on error estimates obtained from a modified Runge Kutta method.
Wallace Stegner’s
Study
Here are reference materials associated
with the project to preserve Wallace
Stegner’s Study, where he wrote several famous
books.