''A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines'' is a book by
Janna Levin
Janna J. Levin (born 1967) is an American theoretical cosmologist and a professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most count ...
which contrasts fictionalized accounts of the lives and ideas of
Kurt Gödel and
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical co ...
(who never met). First published in 2006, the book won several awards, including the prestigious
PEN/Bingham Fellowship Prize for Writers and the MEA Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work. It was also a runner-up for the
Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award The PEN/Hemingway Award is awarded annually to a full-length novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a full-length book of fiction. The award is named after Ernest Hemingway and funded by the Hemingwa ...
.
Description
''A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines'' is a book by
Janna Levin
Janna J. Levin (born 1967) is an American theoretical cosmologist and a professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most count ...
which contrasts fictionalized accounts of the lives and ideas of
Kurt Gödel and
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical co ...
(who never met).
[.]
In an interview with Sylvie Myerson in ''
The Brooklyn Rail
''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...
'', Levin said of her book: "There was a lot that made me want to write it as a novel, one being this whole idea that sometimes truth cannot come out as a theorem even in mathematics, let alone in a retelling of two people's lives. Sometimes you have to step outside of the perfect linear logic of biographical facts.".
References
Science books
Biographies and autobiographies of mathematicians
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