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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
I have a slightly higher opinion of it. One aspect that I found interesting was the role of the "Eureka" moment in research. They labored mightily to get the machine to break Enigma, but the slowness of mechanical relays meant that it still took too much time. When Turing realized that each day's first message (the weather report) ended in the phrase "Heil Hitler!", he was able to devise an algorithm that by-passed thousands of irrelevant solutions, allowing them to quickly converge on the answer.

All that from a momentary flash of intuitive insight. I liked that -- it showed how major breakthroughs really happen.

16 posted on 01/19/2015 2:49:39 AM PST by Cincinatus (Omnia relinquit servare Rempublicam)
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To: Cincinatus

The ny times book review has an interesting article about the movie. The true story is more interesting. Check the story on the post office engineer Tony Flowers.


18 posted on 01/19/2015 3:41:44 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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