Grads of the U of I at Urbana-Champaign will find this hauntingly familiar

The New Yorker offers a short story by the late Roger Ebert. Called "The Thinking Molecules of Titan." From my point of view (and I just visited UIUC...Mike was the student there), it opens with a walk down memory lane.

:-) PLATO is also mentioned.

And, of course, there is the ending.