[lit-ideas] Re: The Code Breaker
- From: Teemu Pyyluoma <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 06:07:29 -0700 (PDT)
--- Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Wednesday, September 29, 2004, 12:35:13 AM,
> Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
>
>
> Jac> On a related point:
> Jac> Has anyone read the life and time of Alan
> Turing, aka. the Code Breaker.
>
>
> No -- but I've read a lot about him.
> Www.turingorg/turing/ is a web
> page on him (actually it's -- also -- a guide to the
> site's pages). He
> wasn't only a code-breaker, JL! But he did crack
> the Enigma Code,
> yes. Have you read _Alan Turing: The Enigma_?
>
It's pretty good, even if the translation I read was
terrible. What immidiately comes to mind about the
book is that according to Hodges, Turing pretty much
lost interest in developing computers when the
engineer insisted that the machine should convert
decimals to binary figures. Turing didn't see the
point in wasting precious processor cycles to
something like that, why can't they just enter
binaries? It's interesting to find out that one of the
basic questions of computing, should we try to make
machines easier to use or educate users appeared at
early going.
Hodges' book is a good antidote to kind of Turin as a
proto-geek found in for example Neil Stephenson's
Cryptonomicon. What irks me about that is the idea,
futher developed in follow-up works I hear, of modern
day hackers as a current incarnation of great
inventors of the past. Hacking, pace Joseph
Weizenbaum's famous tirade about "compulsive
programmers", has to do with ignoring purpose and
planning and just figuring out how to make something
work. Now the history of science isn't a smooth
straight path, but I refuse to believe that Turing et
al. were just "jerking off with numbers."
Cheers,
Teemu
Helsinki, Finland
> --
> Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
> mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
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