30 links. 27 links to Wolfram and his products. 2 links to Minsky's work. 1 link to a mathematics geneology site (who was who's grad student). The math geneology site (not Wolfram) is pretty cool. Otherwise this is a particularly distasteful way to put out self-aggrandizing plugs.
Wolfram is pretty shameless, but I don't think you're being fair to him here. The links to Wolfram Alpha are no different from you or I linking to a Google search, and in context the references to Wolfram's _A New Kind of Science_ speaks to Minsky's influence on his work.
Well, you know, when you are eulogizing someone its generally courteous to talk more about that person than about yourself. When you are promoting your books and "science", be plagiarizing and criticize those who point it out. Just try to put it on pause for the eulogies.
I totally agree. However, Wolfram is unlikely ever to read these comments, so they're kind of useless.
It's one thing to confront somebody when they're being rude. That can be good. But it's pointless to pretend "confront" someone who isn't even here, especially when they're basically famous for it.
Yes, I do believe Wolfram went overboard with his claims for "A New Kind of Science", but I don't think this very sweet blog post was in any way inappropriate.
It's not rude to reference your own work when discussing someone else's, especially when you're showing how much they influenced you and were important to your growth.
> This picture is from one of the last times I saw Marvin. His health was failing, but he was keen to talk. Having watched more than 35 years of my life, he wanted to tell me his assessment: “You really did it, Steve.” Well, so did you, Marvin! (I’m always “Stephen”, but somehow Americans of a certain age have a habit of calling me “Steve”.)
Yeah this really irked me. He's reminiscing about someone who died and he really feels to need to validate his _own_ life's work. Who even knows if Minsky really said that.