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Alligator Eggs and Lambda Calculus (2007)

In 2007, I met Philip Wadler at a conference, who mentioned to me that he wanted to teach lambda calculus to his eight-year-old children. I was getting into game design theory at the time, and was familiar with the school of thought that games are systems of formal rules with a layer of aesthetics.

The game would consist of a series of puzzles, challenging the player to devise a family that, when fed X, produces Y. Each player would roll a die, travel forward a number of spaces, and solve the puzzle at the destination. Oliver Steele pointed out that family roles are very important to children, and more could be made of the concept of grandparent alligators, parents, babies (eggs), and so on.

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