4 ms·

So what would happen if we took up a collection, produced a bound copy, and sent it off to Harvard?

082349872349872 6y ago
Might be difficult. I couldn't turn up any policy in brief surfing, but the only posthumous degrees I found were non-doctoral, and https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/mary-whiton-calkins https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/mary-whiton-calkin... doesn't bode well. (I'm probably just cynical, but if we took up a large enough collection, I'd bet they'd be willing to grant a degree in lieu of naming a building.)
- angry_octet 6y ago
  There's nothing preventing award of degrees after death, if the thesis has been defended, other than administrivia. It's not the Nobel prize.
verytrivial 6y ago
Policy or not, it would perhaps be nice to deposit a copy anyway. Put the ball in their court so to speak, even if Harvard does nothing further.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
gwern 6y ago
I like this idea. So I took a look at their policies and it seems the official Harvard thesis printer (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/student-handbook/dissertation-guidelines/#boundfee https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/student-handbook/dissertation-g...) is Acme, which has an individual-oriented website: https://www.thesisondemand.com/ https://www.thesisondemand.com/ Using their calculator, a single 181pg\* BW printed thesis is ~$45. That seems cheap enough for a joke for me! But it looks like one will need to add some additional metadata to follow the dissertation guidelines... If anyone wants to discuss this further, email me. \* The first copy of the thesis linked in OP is 179 pages but it's very dirty and would need to be printed in color; the second copy, https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2020/05/102790971/Ritchie_dissertation.pdf https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20... , is in much better shape and can be printed in BW.
- gwern 6y ago
  After reading tankenmate's link, it seems this has already been tried & would be pointless; the library would just reject it. Oh well!
tankenmate 6y ago
People, much closer to dmr, in the past have attempted it.[0] The issue it would seem is that there is no record on file at Harvard that he ever defended his thesis. ACM does however have a Doctoral Dissertation award in his name, the irony. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2626401.2626421 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2626401.2626421
- Taniwha 6y ago
  Thanks, looks like people have done well by him
globular-toast 6y ago
I'll never understand why people care so much about posthumous recognition. The man is dead and anything you do now is only going to make you feel better. In any case, Ritchie was regarded as one of the most accomplished men in computing during his life. That's far greater recognition than your average PhD.

Might be difficult. I couldn't turn up any policy in brief surfing, but the only posthumous degrees I found were non-doctoral, and https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/mary-whiton-calkins https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/mary-whiton-calkin... doesn't bode well. (I'm probably just cynical, but if we took up a large enough collection, I'd bet they'd be willing to grant a degree in lieu of naming a building.)

angry_octet 6y ago
There's nothing preventing award of degrees after death, if the thesis has been defended, other than administrivia. It's not the Nobel prize.

verytrivial 6y ago

Policy or not, it would perhaps be nice to deposit a copy anyway. Put the ball in their court so to speak, even if Harvard does nothing further.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

gwern 6y ago

I like this idea. So I took a look at their policies and it seems the official Harvard thesis printer (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/student-handbook/dissertation-guidelines/#boundfee https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/student-handbook/dissertation-g...) is Acme, which has an individual-oriented website: https://www.thesisondemand.com/ https://www.thesisondemand.com/ Using their calculator, a single 181pg\* BW printed thesis is ~$45. That seems cheap enough for a joke for me! But it looks like one will need to add some additional metadata to follow the dissertation guidelines... If anyone wants to discuss this further, email me. \* The first copy of the thesis linked in OP is 179 pages but it's very dirty and would need to be printed in color; the second copy, https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2020/05/102790971/Ritchie_dissertation.pdf https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20... , is in much better shape and can be printed in BW.

gwern 6y ago
After reading tankenmate's link, it seems this has already been tried & would be pointless; the library would just reject it. Oh well!

tankenmate 6y ago

People, much closer to dmr, in the past have attempted it.[0] The issue it would seem is that there is no record on file at Harvard that he ever defended his thesis. ACM does however have a Doctoral Dissertation award in his name, the irony. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2626401.2626421 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2626401.2626421

Taniwha 6y ago
Thanks, looks like people have done well by him

globular-toast 6y ago

I'll never understand why people care so much about posthumous recognition. The man is dead and anything you do now is only going to make you feel better. In any case, Ritchie was regarded as one of the most accomplished men in computing during his life. That's far greater recognition than your average PhD.