ROBOT CHAPEL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Among wriggling dormitories and three-cornered orange peels on the MIT campus, an awesome cylinder of bricks is being raised heavenward. That this unique type of structure be erected as a place of worship is more than ironically sagacious: it is downright shrewd. For, especially here on the MIT campus, form must follow function, in this case, to inspire divine thoughts in the pragmatic-and-recently sobered heads of MIT scientific supermen. the problem of directing brains from the mechanisms of Ac-DC current, the path of least resistance, to thoughts of the spirit, the divine essence and meaning of seemingly scientifically-equationed existences as undergraduates of THE Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is here resolved. and what's more--by mere architecture. Students need not even enter the "pearly gates" for inspiration; simply by gazing upon this matchless expression of modernity such divine phrases as "Oh my God!" and "Well I'll be damned!" will rise to their inspirited lips!

Moreover, the central position of the chapel permits it to be sighted especially well from the ice-rink and baseball field, where mundane pettiness must give way to divine forgival and benediction. Here, this conspicuous exterior may act to furnish added inspiration to a religious tirade, or even assuage wrath by its soothing religiosity.

Judging from the present development of the building, there does not seem to be any provision for natural lighting. Perhaps utter darkness, inducing meditation, will grip the interior, symbolizing the ignorance in which man's soul is thrashing about. And, after a few moments of this thrashing about, the darkness will motivate our logical, expedient MIT student (and all MIT students ARE logical and expedient) with a desire to come out into the natural light. Of God.

Nor do any accessible doorways present themselves to permit entrance into this uninterrupted mass of red brick. This would suggest that we are dealing with a temple constructed for the soul, not for the body. However, arch indentations do appear at sea-level, but these are entirely inaccessible unless the student is an apt swimmer, or comes prepared with waterwings; for a moat encircles our ivory tower. Here surely is the function carried out. As for the most itself, its purpose is at present rather recondite. Possibly a return to the feudal system is desired. But then, the question arises as to whether President Killian would be comfortable, and, accessible, atop his coal-black charger, girdled in steel armor by the edge of the moat.

At the top of this cylindrical temple, another esoteric form presides, resembling a rocket-ship, headed heavenward. This vessel for outer space might be very effectively employed in not wafting gently, but forcefully propelling recalcitrant MIT students into the Empyrean.

In conclusion, if by chance this great architectural advance, seeking perfection in roundness (this being the closest architecture can presently come to the perfect sphere), does not inspire the students with religious zeal, it may yet, by its very strangeness of form, further their engineering interests and drive them to design even "bigger and better" chapels of worship. Nan Barkin--Radcliffe '58