It's an interesting format -- first an essay, or a declaration of sorts, written by a leading thinker/researcher, and then responses from other people of the equivalent brainpower, usually either criticizing or supporting the original essay. It's interesting watching ideas get refined like this, and it's also interesting watching debate happen, where if they do degenerate into personal attacks, they are fairly well veiled.

However, I'm struck at how Simonyi's response (at the bottom of the page) reads more like an endorsement of his own company rather than an actual contribution to the conversation. "Hey, this sounds sort of like a topic similar to what my company does! And here's why my company is so great!" I can't help but draw parallels between that and some of the stuff that gets mentioned in NKS -- "Oh, and by the way, did you know that Mathematica is a fantastic program?"

But you know, Mathematica is really cool. I wish there was a hobbyist level version that you could buy. I just can't justify $1900 for a program that I just want to play with. They have a student version for $140, but the license expires every year and you have to prove you are a student to renew it. I haven't been an official student for 15 years.

(oops, derailed my own post for a moment...) Read the article. It's actually quite amusing to watch some really smart people miss the point. It's nice to see that I'm not alone in missing the point at times.

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