I grant that early LISPs were royally screwed. The main question in my mind is whether or not the cognitive footprint of the sort of language you are advocatin

I grant that early LISPs were royally screwed. The main question in my mind is whether or not the cognitive footprint of the sort of language you are advocating is small enough to retain the same scope and approachability of the traditional ur-lisp exercise, even within an order of magnitude. By "cognitive footprint", of course, I'm including all of the research language esoterica you're saying that a fledgling language designer should understand before they crank out an ur-lisp. Have you considered quickly knocking one out for us so that we can all see what a minimally-viable language that includes all of your essential features looks like? I confess you have piqued my curiosity, and I'd love to see a model to emulate. Just so we're clear: I enjoy your writings on this subject. You rarely fail to expand my thinking.