Add to that list a new government-funded project that aims to create a worldwide pervasive computing system, one that links everyone in their homes and cars through handheld portable devices. The William H. Gates Building will be one of many on the new section of MIT's campus bankrolled in part by Analog Devices chairman Ray Stata, and designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. To celebrate, the LCS let down its thinning hair last night for 1500 guests at a party in the Boston Museum of Science, where alumni, faculty, students, and guests traded war stories while wandering among the exhibits. LCS Director Michael Dertouzos introduced Gates, who kept his remarks short, and Gehry, who didn't. The architect of the curvaceous, metallic Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain spoke of the challenge of bringing his idiosyncratic vision to a campus where some of the most important technological innovations have transpired behind walls suitable for a minimum-security prison.
Architecture is mostly a low priority in their lives.
It reminded me of my first visit to a shrink. Although not an LCS member or alumnus, Gates was permitted to contribute a cartridge representing the Altair Basic programming language he and Paul Allen wrote in 1975. As the crowd filed in through the museum doors, Stanford professor and former Air Force chief scientist Edward Feigenbaum puffed on his pipe. Feigenbaum, whose work on expert systems since the 1950s has pushed the boundaries of artificial intelligence, spoke of the cultural differences between marketing-savvy Silicon Valley and the more academic Boston area. MIT's is not the first computer-science facility Gates has funded.