Two Stop Bits | I dont know if its ficiontalized but there is a scene where Paul Allen flies ou...

bmonkey325 13 days ago | parent

I dont know if its ficiontalized but there is a scene where Paul Allen flies out to New Mexico to meet Ed and test Altair Basic. Microsoft was originally founded in New Mexico before moving back to Bill and Pauls home town of Seattle.

After computing Ed Robers did go to medical school and become an MD

Bio for Ed Roberts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roberts_(computer_engineer)

KODust 13 days ago
That's my understanding as well from what I've read, but everything I've read (before AI existed) indicates he's more of a small-town family practice doctor; while that doesn't preclude award-winning work with AIDS patients, it doesn't sound right to me given the timing, location, and the fact that there is an Ed Roberts who did that sort of work on the other side of the country.
More explicitly: I'm wondering if this wasn't at least partially AI-written, because that's a pretty fundamental error and you'd think a human researcher/writer would easily tell the difference between two Dr Ed Roberts's with no particular relationship on different coasts.
Or maybe we're learning something new about Ed Roberts (Altair guy) -- but given the world today I suspect not.
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- KODust 13 days ago
  to be clear, the article is certainly largely structurally accurate -- that one detail sticks out suspiciously, though
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