Visiting the MIT Museum

Today I visited the MIT Museum after seeing a listing of current exhibits in the Boston Phoenix. It looked interesting, and I was in Cambridge anyway (having Japanese lunch in Porter Square) so I decided to make the long walk down Mass. Ave and check out the museum.

It was small, but neat. When it comes to technology, I am a software guy at heart, so I most liked the AI exhibit. I didn't realize MIT has had a dedicated AI and robotics program since the 1950s, and it was fascinating seeing some of the displays from those early experiments -- in particular, a robotic arm designed by Marvin Minsky in the late 1960s and an early LISP hardware device which was designed to replace the use of the programming language on mainframes. This latter technology eventually resulted in two startups being formed, but both went bankrupt in the 1980s and early 1990s as personal computers became powerful enough to use for LISP programming. I was reminded of the fate of Silicon Graphics, which produced expensive, powerful hardware to handle graphics design and rendering in the 1980s and 1990s. It also went out of business as cheaper PC-based solutions became possible. Moore's Law meets the law of the marketplace ...

The museum has other sections devoted to mechanical engineering, nautical engineering, the history of MIT, and even a very neat mechanized art section. A bunch of displays are hands-on, which can be fun, but when I tried out one of them -- a 3D simulator used to train remotely operated submersibles -- I was frustrated by the interface. "Bad UI," as I like to say when confronted by poorly designed or explained interfaces. RTFM? I would, but there wasn't any.

If you're in that part of Cambridge, the MIT Museum is an interesting diversion for one or two hours. It costs $7 for adults, less for students and seniors, and it's free for people with MIT ID cards.

Photo: Kismet, a 1990s AI/robotics project now on display at the MIT Museum.