algorithms to live by the computer science of human

While sitting for the entrance exam, he was confronted by two advanced graduate students who were sent to question him personally and make sure he failed. Born in the Soviet Union, Frenkel aspired to become a professional mathematician, only to see his hopes crushed by entrenched antisemitism at Moscow State University – home to the premier mathematics program in the country. Love and Math is a mathematical autobiography, seamlessly interweaving an inspiring personal journey with profound mathematical ideas. Perhaps remembering this man and his contributions would be a starting point for change.

Societies have learned little in the intervening decades, though we reap the benefits of his discoveries. We still live in this world of labelling, bullying, division, and derision. The world lost a genius due to a society’s labelling of homosexuality as a crime. A death at his own hand at the age of 41. I marveled at his genius, cheered his cryptographic successes with each cipher cracked, shouted against the tragedy of his arrest, cried at his untimely death. But at a price for Turing, he fought inner demons about his homosexuality and eventually paid the ultimate price. This universal machine laid the foundations for modern computing and all the amazing advances we enjoy today.

A machine, when built at Bletchley Park, allowed the Allies in World War II to crack the German Enigma ciphers. Alan Turing had an idea about a ‘universal machine’. This is a book that is at once a biography, a testament to human genius in the face of imminent danger, and a story of human injustice.

Algorithms to live by the computer science of human