by George Dyson
6. Alan Turing to Philip Hall, November 22, 1936, AMT.
7. John von Neumann to Oswald Veblen, July 6, 1935, OVLC.
8. Ibid.
9. Lynn Newman to parents, late 1937, in William Newman, “Max Newman—Mathematician, Codebreaker, and Computer Pioneer,” in Jack Copeland, ed., Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 179.
10. I. J. Good to Sara Turing, December 9, 1956, AMT; Robin Gandy, “The Confluence of Ideas in 1936,” in Rolf Herken, ed., The Universal Turing Machine: A Half-Century Survey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 85.
11. Alan Turing, “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, ser. 2, vol. 42 (1936–1937): 230.
12. Ibid., p. 231.
13. Ibid., p. 250.
14. Ibid., p. 241.
15. Newman, “Max Newman—Mathematician, Codebreaker, and Computer Pioneer,” p. 178; Max Newman to Alonzo Church, May 31, 1936, in Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), pp. 111–12.
16. Alan Turing to Sara Turing, October 6, 1936, AMT; Alan Turing to Sara Turing, February 22, 1937, AMT.
17. Freeman Dyson, interview with author, May 5, 2004, GBD; Martin Davis, “Influences of Mathematical Logic on Computer Science,” in Herken, ed., The Universal Turing Machine, p. 315.
18. Alonzo Church, “Review of A.M. Turing, ‘On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,’ ” Journal of Symbolic Logic 2, no. 1 (March 1937): 43.
19. Kurt Gödel, “Remarks Before the Princeton Bicentennial Conference on Problems in Mathematics,” December 17–19, 1946, in Solomon Feferman, ed., Collected Works, vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 150.
20. M. H. A. Newman, “Alan Mathison Turing, 1912–1954,” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 1 (1955), p. 256; M. H. A. Newman, “Dr. A. M. Turing,” London Times, June 16, 1954, p. 10.
21. Herman Goldstine, interview with Nancy Stern; Julian Bigelow, interview with Nancy Stern.
22. Julian Bigelow, interview with Nancy Stern.
23. Malcolm MacPhail to Andrew Hodges, December 17, 1977, in Hodges, Alan Turing, p. 138.
24. Turing, “Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals,” p. 161.
25. Ibid., pp. 172–73.
26. Ibid., pp. 214–15.
27. Ibid., p. 215.
28. Alan Turing to Sara Turing, October 14, 1936, AMT.
29. Alan Turing to Philip Hall, n.d., ca. 1938, AMT.
30. I. J. Good, “Pioneering Work on Computers at Bletchley,” in Metropolis, Howlett, and Rota, eds., A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, p. 35.
31. C. Hugh Alexander, “Cryptographic History of Work on the German Naval Enigma,” n.d., unpublished (1945), pp. 19–20, AMT.
32. I. J. Good, “A Report on a Lecture by Tom Flowers on the Design of the Colossus,” Annals of the History of Computing 4, no. 1 (1982): 57–58.
33. I. J. Good, “Enigma and Fish” (revised, with corrections), in F. H. Hinsley and Alan Stripp, eds., Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 164.
34. Sara Turing, Alan M. Turing, pp. 72–73; I. J. Good to Lee A. Gladwin, June 18, 2002, in “Cryptanalytic Co-operation Between the UK and the USA,” in Christof Teuscher, ed., Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2002), p. 472.
35. John R. Womersley, Mathematics Division, National Physical Laboratory, “A.C.E. Project: Origin and Early History,” November 26, 1946, AMT.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Max Newman to John von Neumann, February 8, 1946, VNLC.
39. Alan Turing, “Report on visit to U.S.A., January 1st–20th, 1947,” AMT.
40. Sara Turing, Alan M. Turing, p. 56.
41. Alan Turing, “Proposed Electronic Calculator,” n.d., ca. 1946, p. 19, AMT.
42. Sara Turing, Alan M. Turing, p. 78.
43. Alan Turing, “Proposed Electronic Calculator,” p. 47; Alan Turing, “Lecture to the London Mathematical Society on 20 February 1947,” p. 9.
44. J. H. Wilkinson, “Turing’s Work at the National Physical Laboratory,” in Metropolis, Howlett, and Rota, eds., A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, p. 111.
45. Charles G. Darwin [NPL] to Sir Edward V. Appleton, July 23, 1947, AMT.
46. Alan Turing, “Intelligent Machinery,” report submitted to the National Physical Laboratory, 1948, p. 1, AMT.
47. Turing, “Lecture to the London Mathematical Society on 20 February 1947,” pp. 23–24.
48. Turing, “Intelligent Machinery,” p. 2.
49. Turing, “Lecture to the London Mathematical Society on 20 February 1947,” p. 2.
50. Turing, “Intelligent Machinery,” p. 6.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid., p. 18.
53. Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” p. 456; Turing, “Intelligent Machinery,” p. 17.
54. I. J. Good to Sara Turing, December 9, 1956, AMT; Lyn Newman to Antoinette Esher, June 24, 1949, AMT; I. J. Good, “Ethical Machines,” prepared for the Tenth Machine Intelligence Workshop, Case Western Reserve University, April 20–25, 1981, unpublished draft, October 7, 1980, p. ix.
55. Alan Turing to I. J. Good, September 18, 1948, AMT.
56. I. J. Good, “Speculations on Perceptrons and Other Automata,” IBM Research Lecture RC-115, June 2, 1959, based on a lecture sponsored by the Machine Organization Department, December 17, 1958, p. 6.
57. Turing, “Intelligent Machinery,” p. 17.
FOURTEEN: ENGINEER’S DREAMS
1. Willis Ware, interview with Nancy Stern.
2. Biographical background on J. H. Bigelow, November 14, 1950, IAS.
3. Ibid.
4. Julian Bigelow, interview with Richard R. Mertz.
5. Bigelow, “Computer Development,” p. 291.
6. Julian Bigelow, interview with Richard R. Mertz.
7. Herman Goldstine, interview with Nancy Stern.
8. Thelma Estrin, interview with Frederik Nebeker; Julian Bigelow, interview with Nancy Stern; minutes of Special Meeting of the Members of the Corporation, October 25, 1951, IAS.
9. Minutes of Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees, October 27, 1955, IAS; Julian Bigelow, interview with Richard R. Mertz.
10. Freeman J. Dyson to S. Chandrasekhar, M. J. Lighthill F.R.S., Sir Geoffrey Taylor, Sydney Goldstein, and Sir Edward Bullard, October 20, 1954, IAS.
11. James Lighthill to Freeman Dyson, November 18, 1954, IAS.
12. David J. Wheeler, interview with William Aspray, May 14, 1987, CBI, call no. OH 132.
13. Freeman J. Dyson, “The Future of Physics,” Lecture given at the dedication of Jadwin and Fine halls, Princeton University, March 17, 1970, FJD; John Bahcall, Memo to All Institute Members, September 1976, IAS.
14. Klára von Neumann, Johnny.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. John von Neumann, Testimony Before AEC Personnel Security Board, April 27, 1954, in the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1954), p. 649.
18. John von Neumann to Klára von Neumann, May 16, 1954, KVN.
19. John von Neumann to Klára von Neumann, May 17, 1954, KVN.
20. Harris Mayer, interview with author, April 14, 2006, GBD.
21. John von Neumann to Klára von Neumann, December 9, 1943, KVN; Klára von Neumann, Johnny.
22. John von Neumann, “The Impact of Recent Developments in Science on the Economy and on Economics,” Speech to the National Planning Association, Washington, D.C., December 12, 1955, reprinted in Collected Works, vol. 1 (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1963), p. 100.
23. Jule Charney to Stanislaw Ulam, December 6, 1957, SUAPS.
24. Lewis. L. Strauss, in John von Neumann, documentary.
25. Julian Bigelow, interview with Nancy Stern.
/> 26. Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 244.
27. Marina von Neumann Whitman, interview with author, May 7, 2004, GBD.
28. Marina von Neumann Whitman, interview with author, May 3, 2010; Nicholas Vonneumann, John von Neumann as Seen by His Brother, p. 17.
29. Marina von Neumann Whitman, interview with author, May 3, 2010; Stanislaw Ulam to Lewis L. Strauss, December 21, 1956, SUAPS.
30. Julian Bigelow to Jule Charney, January 18, 1957, JHB; Klára von Neumann, Johnny.
31. Memo on Funeral Arrangements for John von Neumann, February 11, 1957, IAS; Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 242.
32. Marston Morse to John von Neumann, n.d., quoted in Norman MacRae, John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence and Much More (New York: Pantheon, 1992), p. 379; Morris Rubinoff, interview with Richard Mertz.
33. Martin Davis, interview with author, October 4, 2005, GBD.
34. Julian Bigelow, interview with Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, October 30, 1999 (courtesy Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman).
35. Julian H. Bigelow, “Theories of Memory,” in David L. Arm, ed., Science in the Sixties: The Tenth Anniversary AFOSR Scientific Seminar, Cloudcroft, New Mexico, June 1965 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press), p. 85.
36. Julian Bigelow, “Physical and Physiological Information Processes and Systems,” MS, n.d., JHB.
37. Bigelow, “Theories of Memory,” p. 86.
38. Ibid., p. 87.
39. Ibid., p. 86.
40. Ibid., pp. 85–86.
41. Ibid., p. 85.
42. Bigelow, Rosenblueth, and Wiener, “Behavior, Purpose and Teleology,” p. 22.
43. Ulam, Adventures of a Mathematician, p. 242.
44. John von Neumann, The Computer and the Brain (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1958), pp. 79–82.
45. Stan Ulam, quoted by Rota, “The Barrier of Meaning,” p. 99.
46. John von Neumann, “Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution,” Lecture at University of Illinois, December 1949, in Burks, ed., Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, p. 84.
47. Von Neumann, “General and Logical Theory of Automata,” p. 31.
48. Good, The Scientist Speculates, p. 197; von Neumann, “General and Logical Theory of Automata,” p. 21.
49. Von Neumann, “Reliable Organizations of Unreliable Elements,” p. 44.
FIFTEEN: THEORY OF SELF-REPRODUCING AUTOMATA
1. Aldous Huxley, Ape and Essence (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948), pp. 38–39.
2. Ibid.
3. Nils A. Barricelli, “On the Origin and Evolution of the Genetic Code, II: Origin of the Genetic Code as a Primordial Collector Language; The Pairing-Release Hypothesis,” BioSystems 11 (1979): 21–22.
4. John von Neumann to Norbert Wiener, November 29, 1946, VNLC.
5. Ibid.
6. John von Neumann to Irving Langmuir, November 12, 1946, VNLC.
7. Von Neumann, “Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution,” p. 84; von Neumann, “General and Logical Theory of Automata,” p. 28.
8. Von Neumann, “General and Logical Theory of Automata,” p. 31.
9. John von Neumann, “Rigorous Theories of Control and Information,” Lecture at University of Illinois, December 1949, in Burks, ed., Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata, p. 51.
10. Ibid.
11. Von Neumann, “General and Logical Theory of Automata,” p. 31; von Neumann, “Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution,” p. 80.
12. John von Neumann, “Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution,” lecture at University of Illinois, December 1949, in Arthur W. Burks, ed., Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1966), p. 78.
13. Ulam, “John von Neumann: 1903–1957,” 2:8; John von Neumann, quoted in Claude Shannon, “Von Neumann’s Contributions to Automata Theory,” in Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 64, no. 3, part 2 (May 1958): 126.
14. John von Neumann, Outline for book (to be co-authored with Stan Ulam) on theory of self-reproducing automata, not dated, ca. 1952, VNLC (partial listing of topics is given here).
15. Ware, “History and Development of the Electronic Computer Project,” p. 16.
16. David J. Wheeler, interview with William Aspray; Murray Gell-Mann, interview with author, August 10, 2004, GBD.
17. John von Neumann, “Lectures on Probabilistic Logics and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components,” from notes by R. S. Pierce on lectures given at the California Institute of Technology, January 4–15, 1952, p. 1 (later published in C. E. Shannon and J. McCarthy, Automata Studies [Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1956], pp. 43–99). Murray Gell-Mann, interview with author.
18. John von Neumann, “A Model of General Economic Equilibrium,” Review of Economic Studies 13 (1945): 1.
19. “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Monthly Progress Report: June, 1956,” pp. 1–2, IAS.
20. Barricelli, “Prospects and Physical Conditions,” pp. 1 and 5.
21. Marvin Minsky, in Carl Sagan, ed., Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, Yerevan, USSR, 5–11 September 1971 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1973), p. 328.
22. Edward Teller, Memoirs (Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Books, 2001), p. 3.
23. Edward Teller, interview with author.
SIXTEEN: MARCH 9
1. Martin Schwarzschild, interview with William Aspray.
2. Ibid.
3. John von Neumann to Klára von Neumann, January 25, 1952, KVN.
4. Ibid.
5. Martin Schwarzschild, interview with William Aspray; Martin Schwarzschild to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, December 3, 1946, Schwarzschild Papers, Princeton University Libraries, Princeton, N.J.
6. “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1646, Part II—Computer Use, May 1, 1957,” p. 21.0, IAS; Martin Schwarzschild, interview with William Aspray.
7. Ingrid Selberg, personal communication, September 9, 2010, GBD.
8. “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1646, Part II,” p. 21.11.
9. Ibid., p. 21.14.0.
10. John Bahcall, interview with author, May 10, 2004, GBD.
11. Martin Schwarzschild, Structure and Evolution of the Stars (New York: Dover, 1957), p. 284.
12. John von Neumann, “Discussion on the Existence and Uniqueness or Multiplicity of Solutions of the Aerodynamical Equations,” August 17, 1949, in Problems of Cosmical Aerodynamics, Proceedings of the Symposium on the Motion of Gaseous Masses of Cosmical Dimensions, Held at Paris, France, August 16–19, 1949 (Dayton, Ohio: Central Air Documents Office, 1951), p. 75.
13. Ulam, “John von Neumann: 1903–1957,” 2:5.
14. Julian Bigelow to Maurice Wilkes, February 11, 1949, JHB.
15. Julian Bigelow, interview with Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman.
16. Julian Bigelow to Warren Weaver, December 2, 1941, JHB.
17. Stan Ulam to John von Neumann, n.d., ca. 1951, VNLC.
18. Stanislaw Ulam, in Moorhead and Kaplan, eds., Mathematical Challenges, 1966, p. 42.
SEVENTEEN: THE TALE OF THE BIG COMPUTER
1. Von Neumann, “General and Logical Theory of Automata,” p. 13.
2. Hannes Alfvén, “Electromagnetic Phenomena in the Motion of Gaseous Masses of Cosmical Dimensions,” in Problems of Cosmical Aerodynamics, p. 44.
3. Hannes Alfvén, On the Origin of the Solar System (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 1.
4. Hannes Alfvén, “Cosmology: Myth or Science?” Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy 5 (1984): 92.
5. John von Neumann to Klára von Neumann, September 11, 1954, KVN.
6. Hannes Alfvén, unpublished new preface for The Tale of the Big Computer, February 1981, Alfvén papers, University of California–San Diego Librar
ies.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Hannes Alfvén [Olof Johannesson], The Tale of the Big Computer (New York: Coward McCann, 1968), pp. 19–20.
10. Ibid., p. 76.
11. Ibid., pp. 55–56.
12. Ibid., p. 51.
13. Ibid., p. 96.
14. Ibid., p. 84.
15. Ibid., p. 86.
16. Ibid., p. 105.
17. Ibid., pp. 102–3.
18. Ibid., p. 123.
19. Sean Parker, personal communication, July 17, 2011.
20. Sergey Brin, Google press conference at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 10:41 a.m., September 8, 2010, as reported by Nick Saint (http://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-event-live-2010-9).
21. Alfvén, The Tale of the Big Computer, p. 125.
22. William C. Dement, “Ontogenetic Development of the Human Sleep-Dream Cycle,” Science 152, no. 3722 (April 29, 1966): 604.
23. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables (Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1851), p. 283; Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” p. 433.
24. Alfvén, The Tale of the Big Computer, p. 116.
25. Ibid., pp. 117–18.
26. Eva Wisten, personal communication, October 25, 2005, GBD.
27. Alfvén, The Tale of the Big Computer, p. 119.
28. Ibid., p. 126.
EIGHTEEN: THE THIRTY-NINTH STEP
1. Klára von Neumann, The Computer.
2. Julian Bigelow, interview with Richard R. Mertz.
3. “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1646 Part II—Computer Use, May 1, 1957,” p. 10.0, IAS.
4. Harris Mayer, interview with author, May 25, 2011, GBD.
5. Hans J. Maehly to J. Robert Oppenheimer, August 21, 1957, IAS.
6. Hans Maehly, “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1646 Part II—Computer Use, for the period 1 July 1954 to 31 December 1956,” May 1957, p. 14.0, IAS.
7. Bryant Tuckerman, “Report on Post-Mortem Routine,” n.d., IAS.
8. Maehly, “Institute for Advanced Study Electronic Computer Project, Final Report on Contract No. DA-36-034-ORD-1646 Part II,” p. 11.1.
9. Julian Bigelow, interview with Nancy Stern.
10. Burks, Goldstine, and von Neumann, Preliminary Discussion, p. 23.