From rmcivor@macsrule.com Wed Feb 16 13:04:48 2000 X-Digest-Num: 366 Message-ID: <44114.366.1991.959273826@eGroups.com> Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 16:04:48 -0500 From: "Robert A. McIvor" Subject: Dr. James Cooke Brown I was very saddened to hear of the death of Dr. Brown. I was privileged to have known him personally as a friend and colleague, and my deepest sympathies go to his wife and family. I first encountered Loglan in his original Scientific American article, and, while I didn't follow it up, I was intrigued enough to keep looking for further information, and when the first books were announced, began studying it. This led to programming some "Taste Tests" and the first attempts at a machine grammar, and, as a result being invited to visit him in San Diego in 1982. At the time, neither of us had any idea of what the other looked like, and I remember standing in front of the bus depot in San Diego holding up a Loglan publication, wondering if I was going to be chased out for soliciting! We were using some of the first personal computers, and a grammar compilation with YACC took about 45 minutes. Today compiling a considerably larger grammar takes a fraction of a second on current models. Subsequently, we spent many mornings together working on the dictionary during two winters that I spent in a former private school that he had built himself on his Gainesville property, the memory of which I cherish deeply. He had devoted much time in recent years to a book proposing a computer-based economic system which had the potential of eliminating involuntary unemployment, inflation, and the need of economies to have continued growth at the expense of the environment. A sketchy version of this was in his futuristic novel "The Troika Incident". He had been actively engaged in recent months with potential publishers. He had also another book in mind, had nature permitted. However, in recognition of his declining health, he took a couple of months off each year to fulfil ambitions to travel, with trips to Australia, China, Russia, around North America, and was engaged in a trip around South America at the time of his death. He will be greatly missed.