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\F5\CARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CCOMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F0



							July 16, 1974


Professor Beckman
Access to Energy
Box 2298
Boulder, Colorado 80302

Dear Professor Beckman:
 

\J	What we have in common includes optimism about the
possibilities of using technology to aid humanity and a worry
that the current anti-technological fads will jeopardize this.
To show you my line of thought, I enclose a collection of essays
that is slowly becoming a book.

	The immediate question I would like to discuss with you
is whether it is appropriate to start a public interest science
organization that would take a positive view of technology and
which might oppose some of the anti-technological trends both
in publicity and perhaps in lawsuits.  I think it makes an
unfavorable impression on the public when only the organizations
opposing progress can claim disinterestedness, and their
opposition comes only from firms standing to make a profit out
of what the others are opposing.  I know quite a few people who
would be interested in such an organization, probably you know
many more.

	I have reservations to arrive at Denver airport on UA 262 at 11:15 am on 
July 22 and to leave on UA 644 at 4:15 pm on the same day, but don't
feel obliged to spend more time with me than is convenient or
turns out to be appropriate for what we have to discuss; I have
never been in Boulder and can use time exploring it.

	I liked your book \F1The Eco-hysterics and the Technophobes\F0,
but I have some criticisms of particular points that might
interest you if you are updating it.\.

						Sincerely yours,
			


						John McCarthy
						Professor of Computer Science
						Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory