From: Oded Maron
To: all-ai@ai.mit.edu
Subject: GSB - today at 5:30
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 12:29:49 -0400 (EDT)

As many of you know, a new building for the AI lab is soon to be erected on the shabby huts of building 20. We will be sharing that building with LCS, LIDS, BCS, Linguistics, Philosophy, former members of the band "Motley Crue", retired Barnum and Bailey executives, and some trained seals. The only thing left to do is raze building 20, clear out everybody in that building, construct a new academic shrine, and find an architect. Or some permutation thereof.

Finding an architect is tricky, especially since MIT has a long tradition of building wonderfully imaginative rococo structures, particularly along Vassar street. How will we find someone who can top the simple elegance of the rusted butterfly on the side of building 45? Is there anyone who is willing to do battle with the blue looming presence of buildings 34-6-8? Can some architectural genius out-box Tech Square? Will even I.M. Pei be able to produce anything that is more than an afterthought to the moon-like yellow glow of building 48?

I fear not. But we have to try anyway. At this week's GSB, we will examine the short list of candidates for our architect. There will be the realist ("I will create a replica of NE43, down to the roaches"), the optimist ("I see waterfalls, clowns, and lots of boysenberries. The building will be made entirely out of edible materials, so that graduate students will never go hungry. Everybody will have a corner office"), the humanist ("I have secretly buried three children in the cement foundation of this building, to give it a more human feel"), and the dreamer ("Imagine a deflated Epcot Center. As you come closer to solving AI, the structure will slowly inflate, until it stands hypertonic - a monument to intellect and Walt Disney").

  G   I   R   L     S   C   O   U   T     B   E   N   E   F   I   T

7th floor playroom September 12, 1997 5:30 pm