Free Republic

A celebration of John Cocke (1925 – 2002) - One of the most brilliant minds at IBM Research. John Cocke: A Retrospective by Friends - 1990 Computer History - My Old Friend - Tim McGraw - John Cocke and Computer Pioneers - 1990 Computer History - Part 1 - John Cocke Intervew Source - 27 April 1990 Computer History - Part 2 - John Cocke Intervew Source - 27 April 1990

Attention conservation notice: Over 7800 words about optimal planning for a socialist economy and its intersection with computational complexity theory. This is about as relevant to the world around us as debating whether a devotee of the Olympian gods should approve of transgenic organisms. (Or: centaurs, yes or no?) Contains mathematical symbols (uglified and rendered slightly inexact by HTML) but no actual math, and uses Red Plenty mostly as a launching point for a tangent. There’s lots to say about Red Plenty as a work of literature; I won’t do so. It’s basically a work of speculative fiction, where one...