Seymour Papert (1928- )
Wild-haired and ebullient educator, psychologist, mathematician, and computer scientist from Pretoria, South Africa. Seymour Papert received first Ph.D. in South Africa, his second Ph.D. from Cambridge University, then worked at the National Physical Laboratory and then with the gestalt psychologist Jean Piaget in Geneva, Switzerland. When he joined Minsky at MIT, Papert’s influence defined the AI Lab as a place which brought together computing, education, and psychology. There he developed the Logo programming language to help children learn by teaching themselves through play and experiment. For many years Papert worked directly with Minsky, their research in the classroom and the laboratory in concert. His efforts to revolutionize the entire educational system have spread across the world and inspired the likes of Alan Kay.
- Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas (1980)
MIT professor, disciple of Jean Piaget, education iconoclast and human intelligence theorist
wrote Mindstorms
worked with Marvin Minsky