we have been putting forward this idea of a self-obviating system, which is a computational system that, by design, tries to make itself less and less necessary to the functioning of the system in which it is embedded. In this regard, many educational systems are by nature self-obviating systems. They’re systems that are training people to do something, where you don’t want them to be continuously reliant on the technology, you would like them to be able to be self-sufficient.

Although not originally designed for educationalpurposes, Plan 9 and Inferno are excellent tools for usein Computer Science education. Here I discuss how I usethem in my classes at Drexel University. The discussionincludes CS314: Computing in the Small using Plan 9, theOperating Systems courses CS370 and CS543 using Inferno,and the computer I take to the classroom forpresentations running Plan 9.