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I know it seems like one of those Lispers' idiosyncrasies--"discovered" instead of "invented". I first heard it explained by Philip Wadler, and upon reflection

I know it seems like one of those Lispers' idiosyncrasies--"discovered" instead of "invented". I first heard it explained by Philip Wadler, and upon reflection it was one of those "enlightenment" moments that Lispers always go on about: Lambda calculus is a discovery, and should we ever encounter an alien space-faring species, we could read their programs in spite of their alien processing architectures (given that they use a functional language, but let's face it, they have the tech to cross space, they know what they are doing, i.e. they're in the functional camp) "Propositions as Types" by Philip Wadler, Strange Loop. (https://youtu.be/IOiZatlZtGU?t=1678 https://youtu.be/IOiZatlZtGU?t=1678)

agumonkey 8y ago
then you can add a layer of Kay "Lisp is the maxwell equation of computing" I do agree that lisp being super tiny and quite mathematical at heart is probably less a social invention than the rest.
s-shellfish 8y ago
Yes, there's a real reason for using the word discovered instead of invented. Depends on how webbed in you are intellectually to people around you. Which is often highly dependent on language, logic, and math. Lambda calculus. Enlightenment. Discovered, not invented. If it already exists somewhere... Everything coming together in the same patterns. Influence.