Peter G. Neumann, renowned computer scientist, ARPANET/Internet pioneer and expert on technology risks, working at SRI International since 1971, has died at age 93. Peace. He has been my friend and colleague for over half a century. He will be greatly missed.
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@lauren I've been reading the Risks Digest since I first got onto Usenet over 40 years ago. It's changed how I think about system design and how technology integrates with society. RIP PGN
@lauren A sad day.
RIP PGN
@lauren less than a year ago, I re-subscribed to RISKS after decade or two absence.
RIP Peter.
Following PGN's Risks list, at the start of my career, nudged me to think more about topics like HCI, societal context, security, system correctness, and responsibility.
Going back to when the Internet was a much smaller place, his work must have been a positive direct influence on many of us.
@lauren I first worked with Peter N. back in the mid 1970s on secure operating systems. We both became advocates of capability based hardware and software, although we disagreed over whether those capabilities should be short term (and subject to garbage collection) or of infinite durability - I'm in the short-term camp.
Peter N. (and Richard F.) designed a hypothetical provably secure operating system back then - and my group at SDC set forth to try to build a machine to run it and to implement it. (We substantially modified the design, and we got some hardware pieces running by rewriting the microcode on a rather flexible Univac machine.)
Our paths intersected, intermittently, several times since then.
I remember one visit to Peter in which a group from RSRE (UK) and I took a roundabout driving route and got trapped in a Sierra Nevada blizzard - but we made the meeting on time.
I hope that I can be as mentally able as I age as Peter N. was.
@lauren may his memory always be a great blessing for you. 🌟
I believe comp.risks was very essential in 90s for the development of my thinking about risks. Exchanged few emails with him.
@lauren
@lauren I'm so sorry for your loss (and the world's). May his memory be a blessing.
@lauren Just this morning I was writing something that was, in essence, a reply to a conversation we had... 14 years ago.
I was making sure that the points he raised, still relevant to my arguments, were properly addressed and was wondering "Should I send him a 'thinking of you'' note?"
Collaborating with Peter was one of my favourite things about working on CHERI. You can see traces of his influence throughout the CHERIoT design.
