Donald Knuth on Iraq and America

In my ‘other’ life, I instruct online classes for major corporations. I’m doing one now called, “Introduction to Computer Programming”. The “lesson” this week quotes one of my personal heros, Donald Knuth, on a programming topic. I added the address of Knuth’s website to encourage motivated students to dig a little deeper. (http://www-cs-staff.stanford.edu/~uno/)

Knuth is a legend in software circles, in large measure due to his books The Art of Computer Programming . They’re generally taken to be the foundation of programming. In my class, I recommend that students locate the books in their school or public library and open one randomly to any page and start reading. It’s a mind-blowing experience.

But on this occasion, I was curious about a new link on Knuth’s page: Infrequently Asked Questions. Infrequent though they may be, they’re certainly worth asking.

From the mind of a genius, here are Knuth’s questions:

1. Why does my country have the right to be occupying Iraq?
2. Why should my country not support an international court of justice?
3. Is my country not strong enough to achieve its aims fairly?
4. When the leaders of a country cause it to do terrible things, what is the best way to restore the honor of that country?
5. Is it possible for potential new leaders to raise questions about their country’s possible guilt, without committing political suicide?
6. Do I deserve retribution from aggrieved people whose lives have been ruined by actions that my leaders have taken without my consent?
7. How can I best help set in motion a process by which reparations are made to people who have been harmed by unjust deeds of my country?
8. If day after day goes by with nobody discussing uncomfortable questions like these, won’t the good people of my country be guilty of making things worse?

Knuth concludes:

Alas, I cannot think of a satisfactory answer to any of these questions. I believe the answer to number 6 is still no; yet I fear that a yes answer is continually becoming more and more appropriate, as month upon month goes by without any significant change to the status quo.