Paper
"K-Lines: A Theory of Memory" by Marvin Minsky.
Estimated reading time: 50 min
Assignment
[Note: If you discuss the paper or the assignment with another student—which we encourage—indicate whom you have talked with in your submitted composition. Of course your submitted composition must be written entirely by you.]
On a total of one side of one sheet of paper, using 10 pt type or larger, with standard interline spacing and margins, respond to all the following:
There is too much to read, particularly if you are interested in multiple fields. Accordingly, you decide to start a new journal named The MIT Alumni Reader's Electronic Digest, which you expect to go by The Reader's Digest. The idea is to produce each month, in electronic form, in a section titled Steps toward Visions, a half-dozen or so one-page reviews of articles appearing in Science, Nature, and other top-drawer scientific journals.
There is also to be a section titled Hero of the Month, in which a randomly chosen MIT professor identifies his/her favorite classic paper for the one-page treatment. Curiously, Winston is the first professor randomly selected. He selects the K-lines paper. Being busy, he asks you to write the review, duly attending to whatever parts of the the V-S-N-C (Vision-Steps-News-Contributions) mantra you think work but certainly including the V and the C. Also, remember that detail sells (no numbers here, so detail in some other form).
According to journal policy, you are also to offer your views on who should read the unabridged article and what they would get out of it beyond what they get from your summary.