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[IP] A very quotable quote.



The background to this was a series of IETF mail that dealt with the lack of looking at past work. (a characteristic of modern computer science.

Dick had, along with George Mealy, one of the greatest influences on my career as a young Bell Laber. His life long advise was always welcome but his advice to a young MTS with no Phd was key to the directions I took. I cherish the memories and the person.

Unfortunately no one listened to the below quote.

Dave


From: bukys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

One of my favorites, so I have accumulated a little history at
http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~bukys/quotes.html

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Indeed, one of my major complaints about the computer field is that
whereas Newton could say, "If I have seen a little farther than others,
it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants," I am forced to
say, "Today we stand on each other's feet." Perhaps the central problem
we face in all of computer science is how we are to get to the situation
where we build on top of the work of others rather than redoing so much
of it in a trivially different way. Science is supposed to be cumulative,
not almost endless duplication of the same kind of things.

-- Richard W. Hamming, "One Man's View of Computer Science," 1968 Turing
Award Lecture, quoting from Sir Issac Newton's letter to Robert Hooke,
February 5, 1675/76. See ACM Turing Award Lectures: the First Twenty
Years: 1966-1985. (ACM Press. 1987). See also this 1986 talk.

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