World Peace

Knuth 在我心中的地位又一次提高了 :P。

Q: Maybe you feel that some of today’s technologies are still unsatisfactory. If you weren’t busy writing your masterpieces, what technology would you try to revolutionize and in what way?

Knuth: Well certainly I would try to work for world peace and justice. I tend to think of myself as a citizen of the world; I am pleasantly excited when I see the world getting smaller and people of different cultures working together and respecting their differences. Conversely I am distressed when I learn about deep-seated hatred or when I see people exploiting others or shoving them around pre-emptively.

In what way could the desired revolution come about? Who knows... but I suspect that "Engineers Without Borders" are closer than anybody else to a working strategy by which geeks like me could help.

(from Free Software Magazine)

其實很久以前 DDJ 那次也提過類似關懷：

DDJ: Has your digression into TeX and METAFONT been profitable, as well as rewarding?

DK: I put it in the public domain, but I do get royalties on the books. I give one-third of those to the user group. The important thing, once you have enough to eat and a nice house, is what you can do for others, what you can contribute to the enterprise as a whole.

--
It'll be wonderful if I could be Knuth's student :P.