Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [pdf]

Re:Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [... by dang on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @02:18PM (#15543867)

I know it feels like prissy micromanaging when your title is changed, but what you're really asking here is for us not to do our job. Having titles be neutral and (to use pg's original word) bookish is one of HN's key features and a far bigger deal than it might seem. If we didn't maintain that, HN would go to seed.

There are important principles behind everything we do with titles. In this case the principle is that HN works better when the emphasis is on content over personalities, so we edit out most author names and/or celebrity names in titles. This has been consistent for a long time:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7518157

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7668408

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7950730

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9671822

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9919304

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12573986

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Re:Computer control of a machine for exploring Mars (1964) [... by abrax3141 on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @02:32PM (#15544007)

Yes, fine, but most of the point of this particular post was that it was John McCarthy, who is the father of Lisp. Otherwise, as someone said, it's just old flaming about mars landers. Moreover, if you take all personality out of science, you're doing science a disservice.

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