I've read through most of SICP, but I never found what's so great about it. Maybe it is that you can apply this argument to any other language as well: Represen

I've read through most of SICP, but I never found what's so great about it. Maybe it is that you can apply this argument to any other language as well: Represent your theoretical model as data structures that you control, instead of giving up control to the compiler. Representing code as data is not very interesting IMO. Code is code, data is data. Granted both are stored in RAM, but they are very different beasts considering how they flow through the machine. Almost any language allows to parameterize over functions (e.g. function pointers), but there is no need to make closures a first class citizen. After all, closures are a brutal abstraction, isolating any context from the caller. When overdone this ends up in a terrible mess where you don't know what's happening anymore (otherwise known as callback hell). Conclusion, use this only as a last resort.