Oral History of Leslie Lamport - Part 1

Interviewed by Roy Levin on 2016-08-12 in Mountain View CA, X7884.2017
© Computer History Museum
Leslie Lamport pioneered many of the foundational principles of distributed computing. In this two-part interview, he discusses his early interest in mathematics, physics, and computing, and the interplay of these subjects that has continued throughout his long career. He provides the context for some of his most famous work, including the Bakery Algorithm, his seminal paper on the use of state machines to maintain coherence in a distributed system, his Paxos distributed agreement protocol, and his techniques for specifying algorithms and verifying their correctness. In several cases, the importance of these ideas was not recognized widely for years - sometimes decades - after they were published, but they have become fundamental to modern distributed computing systems.
In this interview, Lamport also comments on the opportunities for technical impact that he found by working in corporate research labs while collaborating with colleagues in universities. He talks about the cultures of labs at SRI, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Microsoft that provided the stimulation for his influential ideas and creations.
* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - www.computerhistory.org/collec...
Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.
Lot Number: X7884.2017
Catalog Number: 102717183

[@tbhideciaintshowingup]

Paxos is the most confusing algorithm I learned in my undergraduate studies. Genius for writing multiple explanations to it.

[@rooneye]

I'm quite into computer science and shit. And I know all the founding fathers and main people etc. etc. but I've never heard of this guy before. And that's sad. He should be more well known.

[@ManuAnand79]

Agreed! I stumbled on him while researching core consensus protocols that form the basis of distributed computing. And of course lapped all his papers after that.

[@johnyepthomi892]

Many don’t even know Claude Shannon. So,

[@francisgrizzlysmit4715]

he wrote the original LaTeX, I used his book on LaTeX to write my honours thesis in pure mathematics, 31 years ago

[@AnalyticsEngineer-hg3to]

Great, how to think mathematical to translate business problems into math language?

[@francisgrizzlysmit4715]

@@AnalyticsEngineer-hg3to Hate to tell you I am no businessman, nor do I care to become one

[@abccool111]

WOW!! GENIUS!!

[@johnhammer8668]

This dude spend his life researching outside the academia and somehow made the organizations fund. Woww that unheard of

[@RomanPopov]

"Oh, sh*t, we need four!"

[@MichaelOfRohan]

I wonder how importany acid was to latex...

[@rockets4kids]

Three hours for part 1?!!!

[@Gvozd111]

of his ORAL history

[@MichaelOfRohan]

You should feel blessed lol

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Ilo

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satoshi

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