Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Devil's Scheme (a short story about COMP 210)

I took COMP 210 with Eric Hewett. It was so much more than a course
about computer science. It inspired cartoons and songs and epic poems.
That was just from me. The reason this class was such a revelation:
Dr. Matthias Felleisen. Here now is a story about him


Matthias was enjoying the cdr of his afternoon when the DEVnull appeared!

"Matthias! I am the destructor of your soul. Bwahaha!!!!

But there is an order of operations, as a function of a bet I lost
with the lamda of God, I must grant one wish. Don't feel too happy,
people always try to use this wish to save their soul but their cons
are always are null and I catch them."

Mathias wished for one more wish which the DEVnull must grant.

"You fool!" The DEVnull laughed. "Your wish for a wish that is eq? This wish."

"True" replied Matthias.

"People have asked for zillons of wishes. I thunks you were smarter
than that!" The DEVnull chortled.

Despite what the DEVnull thought, Matthias did have engines nested
inside his engines.

"Your wish is granted", bellowed the DEVnull, "I am returning to you
one more wish which I must grant. Ready?"

The DEVnull smiled for he could allow Matthias to continue to iterate
with wishing for one more wish and spending his life in this process
rather than living it. To the DEVnull, time is meaningless but Matthias is a mere
mortal. "At the end of his life," so thought the DEVnull, "his wishes
will run out and upon his dying breath, his soul will be mine after a lifetime of trying to wish away the DEVnull, how delicious!"

Matthias wished for his previous wish.

The DEVnull then made an amazing expression. That expression, although
robustly descriptive, was unstable and for a time equaling then to infinity, the DEVnull
returns the same wish for the wish that must be granted by the
DEVnull. Next.

"How did you know to do that, Matthias?" asked Corky the questioner.

"I went to Church. Don't tell my students."

--
Sent from my mobile device

"Too late or still too soon too soon to make lots of bad love and there's no time for sorrow. Run around, run around with a hole in your head 'til tomorrow."
-----They Might Be Giants