Fictional Arpanet Dialog
arpanetdialogues.net
arpanetdialogues.net
"Rand: The only programming language that follows the principles of Objectivism is Mathematica."
http://www.arpanetdialogues.net/disclaimer/
The wording is intensely verbose but basically boils down to: "We made this all up as an art project".
Henson: Not yet anyway. ]
.... at which point, I was laughing far too loudly for it to be considered appropriate in an office environment.
Rand was a philosopher-writer. She wrote two famous books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which codify her philosophy, Objectivism. Objectivism has Man as a divinely rational, self-interested, high-achieving capitalist at its center. According to Objectivism, this is what you must strive for, and society must not get in the way (Laissez-faire). She also has a special take on gender relations, for example all her protagonists, both male and female, are single rich genius capitalist workaholics who don't have children since they have no time for such matters.
Although her books (and philosophy) are somewhat simple and two dimensional, it's still interesting to read and ponder, so she became somewhat rich and famous. This led to her ego going into orbit, so eventually a cult around her formed, and apparently she became a bit difficult, casting out members who didn't agree with her, including her lover(s).
Man I feel like a caricature of Spock for explaining this in these terms...