Post

Warren Sack on Edith Ackermann

I am so very sad! Edith was there to welcome me to the Lab when I came as a student and was always there for me throughout my stay. She was teacher, mentor, and friend. My last year at the Lab, Edith invited me and my wife Jennifer to stay with her in her apartment. She was always curious, insightful, joyful, generous, funny, witty, and wonderful to be with. I only regret that her ingrained intellectual modesty will hinder those who did not know her directly from understanding what an intellectual giant she was. She always wanted to attribute her insights to her teachers, her colleagues, and her students—and so she did, and we all loved her for that, and her many other forms of generosity. At the beginning of the video Mitchel sent out, "Conversation on Cybernetics," hosted by Joi, Edith introduces herself, with her classic self-denigrating humor: "I am very happy to be invited here, just like the old wives who know too much about all of the forgotten ideas of the masters." But, she was a master! The world has lost an amazing spirit and a tremendous mind.

Adieu Edith! Que ton esprit circule toujour entre nous même si tu es disparue.

Related Content