I doubt anyone in the modern era thinks about 60's hardware when evaluating Lisps. If this is what you think of them, you're reading some odd stuff. Check out P

I doubt anyone in the modern era thinks about 60's hardware when evaluating Lisps. If this is what you think of them, you're reading some odd stuff. Check out Paul Graham's On Lisp, or Seibel's Practical Common Lisp. Most people using lisps aren't implementing them. People are drawn to them for various reasons, among them: strong metaprogramming facilities, real homoiconicity, DSLs, multiple paradigms, REPL development, hot-loading, and sheer elegance.