Computers obviously not harmful (was: Re: [plt-scheme] Computers considered harmful)

On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 8:07 PM, John Clements <clements at brinckerhoff.org> wrote:
> To be somewhat more specific: imagine using an FRP model to program a robot
> to add one to each element of a list:  The robot's state would probably
> include 'what element I'm visiting', and perhaps an 'add one' operation.
>  The point is that even a purely functional solution is placed into a robot
> framework that turns it into a sequence of mutations.

Depends upon the level of abstraction. Imagine a robot with a binary
sensor pair? and two actions, head and rest...

Are you firing shots across MIT's bow?
[http://blog.snowtide.com/2009/03/24/why-mit-now-uses-python-instead-of-scheme-for-its-undergraduate-cs-program]

N.