ANTIC Interview 435 - Cynthia Solomon and Brian Silverman - Logo

Hello, and welcome to this interview-only episode of ANTIC, The Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, your host for this episode.

Cynthia Solomon is an American computer scientist known for her work in artificial intelligence and making popular computer science for students. She is a pioneer in the fields of artificial intelligence, computer science, and educational computing.

Together with Seymour Papert and Wally Feurzeig, Cynthia designed the Logo computer programming language in 1967.

Dr. Solomon has attained many accomplishments in her life such as being the vice president of R&D for Logo Computer Systems, Inc., when Apple Logo was developed and was the Director of the Atari Cambridge Research Laboratory.

Brian Silverman is a Canadian computer scientist, the creator of many programming environments for children, and a researcher in cellular automata.

As a student at MIT, Brian had worked with Seymour Papert, one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, and when Papert founded Logo Computer Systems, Inc. in 1980 to commercialize the Logo programming language, Brian became its director of research.  Brian was responsible for the development of Logo for the Atari 8-bit line of computers.

This interview took place on May 27, 2022.

Links

• Logoworks: Challenging Programs in Logo by Cynthia Solomon, Margaret Minsky, Brian Harvey - https://www.amazon.com/Logoworks-Challenging-Programs-Logo-books/dp/007042425X 

• Atari Cambridge Research 1982-84 -  https://logothings.github.io/logothings/AtariResearch.html 

• Atari Logo at Atarimania - http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-atari-logo_15782.html 

• Brian’s work at Playful Invention Company - https://www.playfulinvention.com/ 

• ANTIC episode 29 (Turtle-y Goodness) with Atari Logo content - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-29-turtle-y-goodness