Prescient but Not Perfect: A Look Back at a 1966 Scientific American Article on Systems Analysis

Scientific American is celebrating its 166th year. With its history as the longest-continuously published magazine in the U.S., it's probably no surprise that it has touched the lives and career paths of many readers--including the scientists who write articles for us and whose work we cover. So, as often happens, when I met Peter Norvig, director of research for Google, while we were serving as judges for the Google Science Fair, we got to chatting about Scientific American. He mentioned how influential the magazine had been for him personally. And while the most inspiring article to him proved right in many ways, it also ended up being wrong in others. I said something like, "That's really interesting. I'd like to know what those are--and I'll bet others would, too. Would you like to write about that for us?"

via Prescient but Not Perfect: A Look Back at a 1966 Scientific American Article on Systems Analysis | @ScientificAmerican, Scientific American Blog Network