Don Knuth Mit Lectures

The "God and Computers" project continues in Fall 1999 with

DONALD E. KNUTH; Professor Emeritus of The Art of Computer Programming Stanford University

• http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/mit-lectures.html

Since the first announcement of this lecture series there were so many inquiries that I decided to send this e-mail to everyone with answers to the most frequent questions.

PUBLICITY:

The lectures and the panel discussion will be webcasted - thanks to Dr. Dobb's Journal! The website will be announced shortly before the first lecture. Don Knuth's presentations will also be distributed on MIT cable and to the Draper Lab. Professional videos of the series may be purchased after the lecture series is over.

CONTACT ADDRESS:

Don Knuth does not have e-mail! I have given him all e-mails I have received but please direct questions or inquiries to my assistant Jean Hwang (jhwang@ai.mit.edu, 617-452-2832). I would especially like to ask people from the Media to set up interviews with Don through her.

ADMISSION:

The lectures are free and open for the public. Everyone is welcome! They will be held at MIT 34-101 (50 Vassar ST) on Wednesdays. We will start at 4:15 pm with refreshments, the talks and discussions begin at 4:30 pm until about 5:45 pm. After 4 pm parking in restricted areas is acceptable but I would recommend people to take public transportation (Red Line "Kendall", Bus "MIT, Mass Ave").

GOD AND COMPUTERS:

For information about the God and Computers Project please visit our homepage at

• http://web.mit.edu/jmorzins/www/knuth/gac.html

I am still collecting the papers from the first two years but am positive to edit the volume soon; for now, only the abstracts of previous talks are available.

QUESTIONS ON ROBOT SOULS AND CONSCIOUSNESS

I got wonderful messages with very interesting and challenging questions but find myself unable to answer them all in person. Some food for thought you may find at my homepage (see below). I would especially recommend to follow the link to the MSNBC homepage and Margie Wylie's article "What robots can teach about souls". For questions on the difference between us and machines, you might want to read my paper on Cog and the "Image of God" symbol.

And here is the program of the lecture series again:

THINGS A COMPUTER SCIENTIST RARELY TALKS ABOUT

• Lecture 1 (October 6): Introduction.
  • Why I am unqualified to give these lectures.
  • Why the lectures might be interesting anyway.
  • The 3:16 project, a turning point in my life.

• Lecture 2 (October 13): Randomization and Religion.
  • The advantages of unbiased sampling as a way to gain insight into a complicated subject.
  • Dangers to avoid when using this approach.

• Lecture 3 (October 27): Language Translation.
  • How to translate Bible verses without knowing Hebrew or Greek.
  • The surprising rewards of such attempts, even though the task is difficult or impossible.

• Lecture 4 (November 3): Aesthetics.
  • Scientific work as an artistic endeavor.
  • The deep influence that beautiful presentation can have on our understanding of texts.
  • Illustrations by many of the world's greatest masters of calligraphy.

• Panel Discussion (November 17): Topic TBA

• Lecture 5 (December 1): Glimpses of God.
  • What I think I learned about God from the 3:16 project.
  • What I think I learned about theology from the 3:16 project.
  • The difference between the two.

• Lecture 6 (December 8): God and Computer Science.
  • Computer programmers as creators of new universes.
  • Computational complexity as a way to approach questions of free will and omnipotence.
  • Other concepts of computer science that may give insights about divinity.

The lectures and the Q&A after each were published in 2001 ISBN 1575863278 ThingsaComputerScientistRarelyTalksAbout