ESP Biography



HENRY LIEBERMAN, Research Scientist at MIT Computer Science/AI Lab




Major: Math

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 1975

Picture of Henry Lieberman

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Henry Lieberman is a Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). He has a BS in mathematics from MIT, and a PhD-equivalent from the University of Paris, where he was also a Visiting Professor.

He is trying to make computers less stupid and frustrating than they are now, through the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). He has contributed to information overload by authoring more than 120 scientific papers and four books. His latest is "Why Can't We All Just Get Along?", with Christopher Fry.

His research has impacted software on nearly every computer in the world. Nerds will be impressed that he invented real-time memory management, which made today's dynamic memory programming languages like Java, Python, and others possible. He is known for originating prototype object systems, found today in languages like Javascript. He has also been a pioneer in topics like programming by example and commonsense reasoning in AI.



Past Classes

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S10874: Why Can't We All Just Get Along? in Splash 2016 (Nov. 19 - 20, 2016)
This is not a class to trick you into learning math by some narrow application to something interesting. It is not a class about big-data or AI (though those technologies can help.) It is not a class about winning friends or getting a date. It is not a class about who to vote for or political activism to lobby congress. It is not a class about science fiction. It is not a class about band-aid solutions that solve 2% of a problem (maybe). It is not a class about religion in any sense. it is not a class about being nice (though that would help too). It is a class about how new (and not too distant) technologies and processes can actually SOLVE the biggest problems facing humanity. Our solutions do not require magical re-education of the whole planet, everyone to agree on everything, or lots of money, but there are things YOU can do in the next decade to help bring about massive positive change. We start with drastically reducing scarcity with next generation 3D printers. We explain how this, along with a better understanding of psychology, can replace competition with cooperation. We describe a new constitution that replaces power-based governments (such as Democracy) with reason based governments (such as Reasonocracy). With these new paradigms in place, we can cure poverty, war, Global Warming and a host of other major problems. We do not have solutions for every problem. But by getting the current big ones out of the way, that gives us resources to work on the rest.