An entertaining read. The technical reason why LISP 2 failed was the limited memory (42K) of the Q32, but there seems to have been fundamental issues in the conception of the language.
> Even if the project had had more mature leadership, it probably could not have overcome the unfortunate choice of an ALGOL-like syntax and type system, overemphasis on compiled code efficiency, and the obscure choice of first machine to build for.. LISP’s fundamental strengths were lost in LISP 2’s design.
> Even if the project had had more mature leadership, it probably could not have overcome the unfortunate choice of an ALGOL-like syntax and type system, overemphasis on compiled code efficiency, and the obscure choice of first machine to build for.. LISP’s fundamental strengths were lost in LISP 2’s design.