When the Chinese premier Zhou En-Lai was asked what he thought of the long-term importance of the French Revolution, he responded, "it is too early to tell."
Similarly, considering the future pragmatic implications of optimal evaluation as an implementation technique -- a different French Revolution, begun not by Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, but by Gérard Berry and Jean-Jacques Levy -- I would like to say the same thing: it is too early to tell. But I have reasons for optimism.
(I apologize to Gérard for pairing him with Robespierre, but Jean-Jacques and Danton are a better match.)
I wish to emphasize, in summary, that the imperative principle of programming -- of which we heard Monday night, from one of France's most profound, respected, and eloquent philosophers of science [Gérard's invited talk, From Principles to Programming Languages] -- is a principle founded on the fundamentally royalist notions of command and state and assignment.
In marked contrast, the functional principle of programming -- championed by our modern-day Danton -- is founded on one of the fundamental Rights of Man: the freedom of expressions. And optimal evaluation is further based on the essentially populist principle of sharing work and resources: from each according to his computational abilities, to each according to his computational needs.
So if Danton could be with us today, he would not say, like Louis IV, L'état, c'est moi -- a royalist imperative. Instead, he would exclaim,
Je suis le peuple! Vive le lambda calcul! Et surtout, Vive la France!
Thank you.