Re: Technical Professionals and the humanities ( Was: Re: Eiffel anyone? - Who uses it?)

Re: Technical Professionals and the humanities ( Was: Re: Eiffel anyone? - Who uses it?)

[Peter Horan]

> In article <33CECAB3.2AB8@sig.please>, look@sig.please says...
> 
> [On Richard Feynman]
> 
> >OK, he wasn't a computer scientist, but it's interesting anyway.
> 
> Actually he was, in later years.  He did some consulting for Thinking
> Machines.  I saw a TV programme where one of the people at TM talked
> about Feynman's work with them.  Apparently Feynman proposed an
> improved architecture for the machine after doing some maths that
> involved the number of 1s in the computer.

I think he also ran the calculating lab at Los Alamos during the
second world war. I forget the details, but computing existed
before the electronic brain.

-- 
Peter Horan                     School of Computing and Mathematics
peter@deakin.edu.au             Deakin University
+61-3-5227 1234 (Voice)         Geelong, Victoria 3217, AUSTRALIA
+61-3-5227 2028 (FAX)           http://www.cm.deakin.edu.au/~peter

Re: Technical Professionals and the humanities ( Was: Re: Eiffel anyone? - Who uses it?)

[Tal Garfinkel]

: > 
: > [On Richard Feynman]
: > 
: > >OK, he wasn't a computer scientist, but it's interesting anyway.
: > 
: > Actually he was, in later years.  He did some consulting for Thinking
: > Machines.  I saw a TV programme where one of the people at TM talked
: > about Feynman's work with them.  Apparently Feynman proposed an
: > improved architecture for the machine after doing some maths that
: > involved the number of 1s in the computer.

Feynman also taught a class at CalTech on the limits of computation(dealing 
with issues of quantum physic's, not complexity).Also for an awsome 
synthesis of a lot of stuff you learned as an undergraduate plus stuff 
from Feynman's class on the limits of computation check out the "Feynman 
Lectures on Computation". They were published just last year and are a 
wonderful read(as is nearly anything he wrote). 

Tal

Re: Technical Professionals and the humanities ( Was: Re: Eiffel anyone? - Who uses it?)

[Ian Nelson]

Peter Horan wrote:
> 
> > In article <33CECAB3.2AB8@sig.please>, look@sig.please says...
> >
> > [On Richard Feynman]
> >
> > >OK, he wasn't a computer scientist, but it's interesting anyway.
> >
> > Actually he was, in later years.  He did some consulting for Thinking
> > Machines.  I saw a TV programme where one of the people at TM talked
> > about Feynman's work with them.  Apparently Feynman proposed an
> > improved architecture for the machine after doing some maths that
> > involved the number of 1s in the computer.
> 
> I think he also ran the calculating lab at Los Alamos during the
> second world war. I forget the details, but computing existed
> before the electronic brain.

Yep, he optimized problems into something the computers could solve in a
reasonable amount of time.  I've also read about him beating computers
at determining some things.  

Either way, if he was still around, I'd pick him for my team if the
project had nothing to do with physics, math, or computers.