Turing's Cathedral

by George Dyson

  66. John von Neumann to Edward Teller, April 1, 1950, VNLC.

  67. Richtmyer, “People Don’t Do Arithmetic.”

  68. John von Neumann to Klára von Neumann, January 14, 1948, KVN.

  69. Richtmyer, “People Don’t Do Arithmetic.”

  70. Klára von Neumann to Harris Mayer, April 8, 1949, KVN.

  71. John von Neumann, “Various Techniques Used in Connection with Random Digits,” in A. S. Householder, ed., Monte Carlo Method, Proceedings of a Symposium held June 29, 30 and July 1, 1949, in Los Angeles, California, under the sponsorship of the RAND Corporation, and the National Bureau of Standards, with the cooperation of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Bureau of Standards Applied Mathematics Series 12, issued June 11, 1951, p. 36.

  72. A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, 1955), p. xii.

  73. Klára von Neumann to Stan Ulam, May 15, 1949, SUAPS.

  74. Klára von Neumann to Carson Mark, June 28, 1949, KVN.

  75. Herman Kahn, “Use of Different Monte Carlo Sampling Techniques,” in Meyer, ed., Symposium on Monte Carlo Methods, p. 147.

  ELEVEN: ULAM’S DEMONS

  1. Ulam, January 14, 1974, in “Conversations with Gian-Carlo Rota.”

  2. Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 10; Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos”; Mitchell Feigenbaum, “Reflections of the Polish Masters: Interview with Stan Ulam and Mark Kac,” n.d., Los Alamos Science (Fall 1982): 57.

  3. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  4. Bruno Augenstein, interview with author, June 9, 1999, GBD; Françoise Ulam, interview with author, September 17, 1999, GBD; Claire Ulam, in “Stanislaw Ulam, 1909–1984,” 1.

  5. Françoise Ulam, in “Stanislaw Ulam, 1909–1984,” p. 6; Gian-Carlo Rota, “The Barrier of Meaning,” Letters in Mathematical Physics 10 (1985): 97.

  6. Ulam, in “Conversations with Gian-Carlo Rota”; Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 114.

  7. Françise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Stanislaw Ulam to John von Neumann, n.d., 1941, VNLC.

  12. John von Neumann to Stanislaw Ulam, April 2, 1942, VNLC; Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 141.

  13. John von Neumann to Stanislaw Ulam, November 9, 1943, SFU; Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 144.

  14. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  15. Ibid.

  16. Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 155; ibid., p. 156.

  17. Harris Mayer, “People of the Hill: The Early Days,” Los Alamos Science, no. 28 (2003): 9.

  18. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, pp. 147–48.

  21. Ulam, “Conversations with Gian-Carlo Rota.”

  22. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  23. Norris Bradbury, at Los Alamos Coordinating Council, October 1, 1945, in David Hawkins, ed., Manhattan District History: Project Y, the Los Alamos Project, vol. 1: Inception Until August 1945 (Los Alamos, N.M.: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1946–1947; declassified as LAMS-2532, vol. 1, 1961), pp. 120–21.

  24. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  25. Edward Teller, February 13, 1945, in ibid.; Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  26. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos”; Ulam, Testimony, Honeywell, Inc., Plaintiff, v. Sperry Rand Corporation and Illinois Scientific Developments, Inc., Defendants, p. 7349.

  27. H. G. Wells, The World Set Free (New York: Dutton, 1914), pp. 114–15.

  28. Stanislaw Ulam, “Thermonuclear Devices,” in R. E. Marshak, ed., Perspectives in Modern Physics: Essays in Honor of Hans Bethe (New York: Wiley Interscience, 1966), p. 593.

  29. Edward Teller, “The Work of Many People,” Science 121 (February 25, 1955): 269.

  30. Memorandum to the Secretary of War from Vannevar Bush and James B. Conant, “Supplementary Memorandum Giving Further Details Concerning Military Potentials of Atomic Bombs and the Need for International Exchange of Information,” September 30, 1944, in JCAE declassified General Subject Files, Box 60, NARA. After Fitzpatrick, Igniting the Light Elements, p. 103.

  31. Teller, “The Work of Many People,” p. 268.

  32. Ibid., p. 269.

  33. Edward Teller, Testimony, United States District Court, District of Minnesota, Fourth Division, 4-67 Civil 138: Honeywell, Inc., Plaintiff, v. Sperry Rand Corporation and Illinois Scientific Developments, Inc., Defendants, Transcript of Proceedings, vol. 47, Minneapolis, Minn., Monday, August 30, 1971, p. 6702.

  34. Hans A. Bethe, “Comments on the History of the H-Bomb,” written in 1954, declassified in 1980, with a new introduction by Hans Bethe, in Los Alamos Science (Fall 1982): 47.

  35. Teller, Testimony, Honeywell, Inc., Plaintiff, v. Sperry Rand Corporation and Illinois Scientific Developments, Inc., Defendants, p. 6771.

  36. E. Bretscher, S. P. Frankel, D. K. Froman, N. Metropolis, P. Morrison, L. W. Nordheim, E. Teller, A. Turkevich, and J. Von Neumann, “Report on the Conference on the Super,” LA-575, February 16, 1950.

  37. John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs, “Improvements in Method and Means for Utilizing Nuclear Energy,” U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, Office for Emergency Management, Invention Disclosure, May 28, 1946.

  38. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  39. J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Advisory Committee, AEC, to David Lilienthal, Chairman, AEC, October 30, 1949, with attached General Advisory Committee’s Majority and Minority Reports on Building the H-Bomb, reprinted in Herbert F. York, The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1976), pp. 150–59.

  40. James B. Conant, Hartley Rowe, Cyril Stanley Smith, L. A. DuBridge, Oliver E. Buckley, J. R. Oppenheimer, and I. I. Rabi, General Advisory Committee to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Report of October 30, 1949, reprinted in Herbert F. York, The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1976), p. 157; John von Neumann to Joe Mayor, February 3, 1950, VNLC.

  41. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  42. Ulam, Testimony, Honeywell, Inc., Plaintiff, v. Sperry Rand Corporation and Illinois Scientific Developments, Inc., Defendants, p. 7401.

  43. John von Neumann, Testimony Before AEC Personnel Security Board, 27 April 1954, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1954), p. 655.

  44. Ralph Slutz, interview with Christopher Evans.

  45. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos”; Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, pp. 216–17; Stan Ulam to John von Neumann, January 27, 1950, VNLC.

  46. Ulam, “Thermonuclear Devices,” p. 597.

  47. John von Neumann to Stan Ulam, February 7, 1950, SUAPS.

  48. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  49. Edward Teller, interview with author.

  50. Bethe, “Comments on the History of the H-Bomb,” pp. 44 and 49.

  51. Stan Ulam to Hans Bethe, October 29, 1954, Cornell University/PM.

  52. Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam, “On Heterocatalytic Detonations I, Hydrodynamic Lenses and Radiation Mirrors,” LAMS-1225, March 9, 1951.

  53. Mayer, “People of the Hill,” p. 25; Harris Mayer, interview with author, May 25, 2011, GBD.

  54. Theodore Taylor, interview with Kenneth W. Ford, February 13, 1995, Niels Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics, Washington, D.C.

  55. Gordon Dean, Testimony Before AEC Personnel Security Board, April 19, 1954, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1954), p. 305.

  56. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Testimony Before the AEC Personnel Security Board, April 16, 1954, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing O
ffice, 1954), p. 251.

  57. Marshall Rosenbluth, “Genesis of the Monte Carlo Algorithm for Statistical Mechanics” (text of talk at LANL, June 9, 2003), courtesy Marshall Rosenbluth.

  58. Bill Borden, Memorandum for the File, August 13, 1951, concerning a conversation with Admiral Strauss, p. 1, NARA-JCAE/PM.

  59. Klára von Neumann, Johnny.

  60. Taylor, interview with Kenneth W. Ford.

  61. John S. Walker, Memorandum to the files, Subject: Thermonuclear Matters and the Department of Defense, October 3, 1952, NARA/PM; Klára von Neumann, Johnny.

  62. J. Robert Oppenheimer, letters on contracts, March 14 and 17, 1950, IAS-BS.

  63. Bigelow, “Computer Development,” p. 308.

  64. Françoise Ulam, “From Paris to Los Alamos.”

  65. C. J. Everett and S. M. Ulam, “On a Method of Propulsion of Projectiles by Means of External Nuclear Explosions,” Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Report, LAMS–1955, August 1955, pp. 3–5.

  66. Stanislaw Ulam, Testimony, January 22, 1958, Before Senator Albert Gore and Representative James T. Patterson, in Outer Space Propulsion by Nuclear Energy, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Outer Space Propulsion of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, held Jan. 22, 23 and Feb. 6, 1958, Eighty-fifth Congress, second session, p. 48.

  67. James Clerk Maxwell, Theory of Heat (London: Longman’s, 1871), p. 308.

  68. Stanislaw M. Ulam, “On the Possibility of Extracting Energy from Gravitational Systems by Navigating Space Vehicles,” LAMS-2219 (written April 1, 1958, distributed June 19, 1958), pp. 3–7.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Stan Ulam to John von Neumann, February 29, 1952, VNLC.

  71. Maxwell, Theory of Heat, pp. 288–89.

  72. Stan Ulam to John von Neumann, February 7, 1949, VNLC.

  73. Stan Ulam to Arthur W. Burks, January 27, 1961, SUAPS; Nicholas Metropolis to Stan Ulam, June 7, 1948, SUAPS.

  74. “Notes on Meeting of 25 August 1951 on a Site for a Super Test,” edited by William Ogle, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, J-Division Experiment Planning, September 8, 1951, p. 20, available at http://www.osti.gov/​opennet/​servlets/​purl/​16001505-Pm1e3p/​16001505.pdf.

  75. Franke E. Moore Jr. and H. Gordon Bechanan, “History of Operation Ivy, 1951–1952,” n.d., p. 274, available at www.hss.doe.gov/​HealthSafety/​IHS/​marshall/​collection/​data/​ihp1d/​59438e.pdf.

  76. Lauren R. Donaldson, Diary of Operation Ivy, First “H” Test, Oct. 15 to Nov. 13, 1952, available at http://www.osti.gov/​opennet/​servlets/​purl/​16205388-DiXyLw/​16205388.pdf.

  77. Walter Munk and Deborah Day, “Ivy-Mike,” Oceanography 17, no. 2 (June 2004): 102.

  78. Moore and Bechanan, “History of Operation Ivy,” p. 277.

  79. Stan Ulam to John von Neumann, November 9, 1952, VNLC.

  80. George Gamow to Stan Ulam, July 20, 1953, SUAPS.

  81. Stan Ulam to George Gamow, July 20, 1953, SUAPS.

  TWELVE: BARRICELLI’S UNIVERSE

  1. Nils Aall Barricelli, “Experiments in Bionumeric Evolution Executed by the Electronic Computer at Princeton, N.J.,” unpublished, August 1953, pp. 2–3, IAS.

  2. Gerald Estrin, interview with author; Nils Aall Barricelli, “Sur le Fondement Théorétique pour l’analyse des Courbes Climatiques,” PhD thesis, University of Oslo, 1947; Tor Gulliksen, personal communication, November 22, 1995, GBD.

  3. Simen Gaure, personal communication, November 23, 1995, GBD.

  4. Kirke Wolfe, interview with author, April 29, 2010, GBD; Nils Aall Barricelli, “Prospects and Physical Conditions for Life on Venus and Mars,” Scientia 11 (1961): 1.

  5. Simen Gaure, personal communication, November 23, 1995, GBD; Kirke Wolfe, interview with author; Barricelli, “Symbiogenetic Evolution Processes Realized by Artificial Methods,” p. 307.

  6. Frank Stahl, interview with author, February 25, 2007, GBD.

  7. Simen Gaure, personal communication, November 23, 1995, GBD.

  8. Atle Selberg, interview with author, May 11, 2004, GBD.

  9. “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Monthly Progress Report, March 1953,” p. 3, IAS.

  10. Nils Aall Barricelli, Application for United States Government Travel Grant for Citizens of Norway, Fulbright Act, to be submitted to United States Educational Foundation in Norway, December 8, 1951, IAS.

  11. John von Neumann to Fulbright office, U.S. Educational Office in Norway, February 5, 1952, IAS.

  12. Barricelli, “Experiments in Bionumeric Evolution,” p. 1; Julian Bigelow, interview with author, November 1997, GBD.

  13. Nils A. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part II,” Acta Biotheoretica 16 (1962): 122; Claude E. Shannon, “An Algebra for Theoretical Genetics,” PhD dissertation, Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 15, 1940.

  14. John von Neumann to Norbert Wiener, November 29, 1946, VNLC; John von Neumann to Mina Rees, Office of Naval Research, January 20, 1947, VNLC.

  15. Nils A. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part I,” Acta Biotheoretica 16 (1962): 70.

  16. Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project General Arithmetic Operating Log, June 22, 1956.

  17. “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1023, April 1, 1954,” p. II-83-85, IAS.

  18. Barricelli, “Symbiogenetic Evolution Processes,” p. 152.

  19. Barricelli, “Experiments in Bionumeric Evolution,” p. 2; Barricelli, “Symbiogenetic Evolution Processes,” p. 175.

  20. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part I,” p. 72; ibid., p. 94.

  21. Ibid., p. 94.

  22. Barricelli, “Symbiogenetic Evolution Processes,” p. 159.

  23. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part I,” p. 88.

  24. Nils Aall Barricelli, “Evolution Processes Realized by Numerical Elements,” Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project Monthly Progress Report, July 1956, pp. 10–11, IAS.

  25. Barricelli, “Symbiogenetic Evolution Processes,” p. 169.

  26. Gerald Estrin, interview with author; Barricelli, “Symbiogenetic Evolution Processes,” p. 164.

  27. Barricelli, “Experiments in Bionumeric Evolution,” p. 12.

  28. Barricelli, “Esempi numerici di processi di evoluzione,” p. 48.

  29. Barricelli, “Symbiogenetic Evolution Processes,” p. 180; Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part II,” p. 117.

  30. John von Neumann, “Statistical Theories of Information,” Lecture at University of Illinois, December 1949, in Burks, ed., Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, p. 60.

  31. John von Neumann, “Reliable Organizations of Unreliable Elements,” n.d., late 1951, p. 44, VNLC.

  32. John von Neumann, “The Role of High and Extremely High Complication,” Lecture at University of Illinois, December 1949, in Burks, ed., Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, p. 71.

  33. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part II,” p. 116; Nils A. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories,” Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, vol. 1 (1972), p. 122.

  34. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part II,” p. 100; Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories” (1972): 126.

  35. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part II,” p. 101.

  36. Nils Aall Barricelli, Robert Toombs, and Louis Nelson, “Virus-Genetic Theory Testing by Data Processing Machines, Parts 1–3,” Journal of Theoretical Biology 32, no. 3 (1971): 621.

  37. Kirke Wolfe, interview with author.

  38. John von Neumann to Hans A. Bethe, November 13, 1953, VNLC.

  39. Frank Stahl, interview with author.

  40. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories: Part I,” pp. 69 and 99; ibid., p. 94.

  41. Nils Barricelli, “Genetic Langu
age, Its Origins and Evolution,” Theoretic Papers 4, no. 6 (Oslo: The Blindern Theoretic Research Team, 1986): 106–7.

  42. Ibid., p. 107.

  43. Barricelli, “On the Origin and Evolution of the Genetic Code, II,” pp. 19 and 21.

  44. Nils A. Barricelli, “Suggestions for the Starting of Numeric Evolution Processes Intended to Evolve Symbioorganisms Capable of Developing a Language and Technology of Their Own,” Theoretic Papers 6 (Oslo: The Blindern Theoretic Research Team, 1987): 121.

  45. Nils A. Barricelli, “The Functioning of Intelligence Mechanisms Directing Biologic Evolution,” Theoretic Papers 3, no. 7 (Oslo: The Blindern Theoretic Research Team, 1985): 126.

  46. Barricelli, “Numerical Testing of Evolution Theories,” (1972): 123–24.

  47. Nils Barricelli, “The Intelligence Mechanisms Behind Biological Evolution,” Scientia, September 1963, pp. 178–79.

  48. Barricelli, “Suggestions for the Starting of Numeric Evolution Processes,” p. 144.

  49. Carl Woese and Nigel Goldenfeld, “How the Microbial World Saved Evolution from the Scylla of Molecular Biology and the Charybdis of the Modern Synthesis,” Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 73, no. 1 (March 2009): 20.

  50. Nigel Goldenfeld and Carl Woese, “Biology’s Next Revolution,” Nature, January 25, 2007, p. 369.

  51. Nils Barricelli, in Paul S. Moorhead and Martin M. Kaplan, eds., Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution: A Symposium Held at the Wistar Institute, April 25–26, 1966 (Philadelphia: Wistar Institute, 1966), p. 67; Alan Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” Mind 59, no. 236 (October 1950): 456.

  52. George Church, West Hollywood, Calif., July 26, 2009, EDGE Foundation, “A Short Course on Synthetic Genomics” (http://edge.org/​event/​master-classes/​the-edge-master-class-2008-a-short-course-on-synthetic-genomics).

  THIRTEEN: TURING’S CATHEDRAL

  1. Sara Turing, Alan M. Turing (Cambridge, UK: W. Heffer and Sons, 1959), p. 11.

  2. Alan Turing to Sara Turing, aboard Cunard White Start Berengaria, September 28, 1936, AMT.

  3. Sara Turing, Alan M. Turing, p. 11.

  4. Ibid., pp. 11, 23, 27, and 29.

  5. Alan Turing to Sara Turing, September 28, 1936, AMT.