Restless Device

The Lisp programming language is strange, amazing, and beautiful. Some say it is the most elegant and powerful language ever created. You can learn all the basics in a few minutes, but the language is also subtle and sophisticated and learning it can bring you face-to-face with the underlying structure of thought. For decades, Lisp was the main language for artificial intelligence research and it was also the basis for two important teaching languages-- Scheme and Logo. Recently, aspects of the Lisp way of thinking have also shown up in the United States' Next Generation Science Standards. In this episode I look at where this language came from, how it works, and how it became part of the national discussion about education.