Date: 16 February 1981 1229-EST (Monday)
From: Guy.Steele at CMU-10A
To: bug-lispm at MIT-AI, cube-lovers at MIT-MC
Subject:  Scientific American
Message-Id: <16Feb81 122922 GS70@CMU-10A>

Congratulations to cubemeisters, LISP Machinists, and Symbolicists
alike for making *Scientific American*.

Now that the LISP Machine has been used to serve the cause of
cubing, has any thought been given to the converse?  For example,
perhaps a mouse/joystick-like device could be built based on
cube technology?

Also, anyone thought about the limiting case of odd-shaped
polyhedra: the continuous cube (or, Rubik's sphere)?  There are
three possible places to introduce continuity.  For a given
twist, one must choose an axis, choose a depth of slice,
and choose an angle of twist.  For the cube all three are
quantized.  What are the geometric/topological properties
of an object where some subset of these three choices are
given a continuous domain?  (I haven't the mathematics undert
my belt to attack this problem -- sorry.)
--Guy