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A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna…
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A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines (original 2006; edition 2007)

by Janna Levin

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6061938,803 (3.58)7
Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems sent shivers through Vienna's intellectual circles and directly challenged Ludwig Wittgenstein's dominant philosophy. Alan Turing's mathematical genius helped him break the Nazi Enigma Code during WWII. Though they never met, their lives strangely mirrored one another--both were brilliant, and both met with tragic ends. Here, a mysterious narrator intertwines these parallel lives into a double helix of genius and anguish, wonderfully capturing not only two radiant, fragile minds but also the zeitgeist of the era.… (more)
Member:lhager
Title:A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines
Authors:Janna Levin
Info:Anchor (2007), Paperback, 240 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:historical fiction, mathematics

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A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin (2006)

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» See also 7 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 19 (next | show all)
Agree with the reviewer who wrote that the idea of this book was more interesting than the book turned out to be. I wanted more detail, written for the philosophical/mathematical layman, on Gödel's and Turing's work and discoveries than I got. I wish there had been more scenes in the book like the discussion between Alan Turing and Joan about his opinion on the determinism of the machine-like mind, and less of the scenes that felt sort of irrelevant, like, say, the story of Turing hiding some silver bars in the woods during the war and then failing to find them years later.

But the novel does still present us with two interesting characters, some philosophical nuggets, and not a bad writing style. I'm left with the knowledge that Turing and Gödel were mostly miserable geniuses who had great difficulty with human interaction, and perhaps a greater motivation to seek out a well-written biography or two. ( )
  lelandleslie | Feb 24, 2024 |
I recommend this to everyone. Pleasant and beautiful. Why do mathematicians die such horrible deaths? ( )
  Adammmmm | Sep 10, 2019 |
The narrative left me with a floaty sensation; tricky to discern facts from imagery. ( )
  paperdust | Jan 17, 2018 |
A short introduction to the lives and thoughts of Kurt Godel and Alan Turing told in a novelistic style. Worth a read for those unfamiliar with these giants of 20th century thought, but the book is light on details and the prose weak. It seems to me that Levin tries a bit too hard with her imagery. ( )
1 vote ghefferon | Dec 15, 2012 |
A rather lovely tribute to two fascinating, brilliant, odd, and sad men. I was familiar with the intellectual work of both Gödel and Turing, but didn't know much about their lives (and deaths).

The most interesting aspect of the novel was the way Levin showed the parallels and intersections of the lives of two men who were aware of each other but never met.

One wonders how their respective work would have been different had each of them had different personalities and lives. And what an actual meeting between them would have been like. ( )
  LucindaLibri | Oct 13, 2012 |
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Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems sent shivers through Vienna's intellectual circles and directly challenged Ludwig Wittgenstein's dominant philosophy. Alan Turing's mathematical genius helped him break the Nazi Enigma Code during WWII. Though they never met, their lives strangely mirrored one another--both were brilliant, and both met with tragic ends. Here, a mysterious narrator intertwines these parallel lives into a double helix of genius and anguish, wonderfully capturing not only two radiant, fragile minds but also the zeitgeist of the era.

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