
Richard Bellman on the Birth of Dynamic Programming (2002) [pdf] - kqr2
https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/opre.50.1.48.17791
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OskarS
I love the section on the name "dynamic programming" (arguably the worst term
in all of computer science):

 _The 1950s were not good years for mathematical research. We had a very
interesting gentleman in Washington named Wilson. He was Secretary of Defense,
and he actually had a pathological fear and hatred of the word, research. I’m
not using the term lightly; I’m using it precisely. His face would suffuse, he
would turn red, and he would get violent if people used the term, research, in
his presence. You can imagine how he felt, then, about the term, mathematical.
The RAND Cor- poration was employed by the Air Force, and the Air Force had
Wilson as its boss, essentially. Hence, I felt I had to do something to shield
Wilson and the Air Force from the fact that I was really doing mathematics
inside the RAND Corporation. What title, what name, could I choose? In the
first place I was interested in planning, in decision making, in thinking. But
planning, is not a good word for various reasons. I decided therefore to use
the word, ‘programming.’ I wanted to get across the idea that this was
dynamic, this was multistage, this was time-varying. I thought, let’s kill two
birds with one stone. Let’s take a word that has an absolutely precise
meaning, namely dynamic, in the classical physical sense. It also has a very
interesting property as an adjective, and that is it’s impossible to use the
word, dynamic, in a pejorative sense. Try thinking of some combination that
will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It’s impossible. Thus, I thought
dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman
could object to. So I used it as an umbrella for my activities_

Basically: "I more or less randomly picked two words that sounded good in a
government bureaucracy". Makes sense!

~~~
1000units
_It also has a very interesting property as an adjective, and that is it’s
impossible to use the word, dynamic, in a pejorative sense. [...] It’s
impossible._

Recent developments in machine learning and algorithmic decision making have
brought about something that might well be called _dynamic racism_ , which it
seems Bellman had not anticipated.

A good reference for the unfamiliar:
[https://fairmlclass.github.io](https://fairmlclass.github.io)

~~~
abecedarius
Dynamic ethics was what came to my mind.

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mark_l_watson
That was a great read. Bellman’s work affects much of technology today.
Interesting to hear his story, especially the Stanford vs. Rand career path
decision.

