Like Ernst, I also had heard nothing but have had productive email exchanges with Hans Riesel.

I've noticed that academics often do not get much recognition when they cross the great divide. When even a minor celebrity dies, there is usually at least some fanfare and tributes. This does not seem to be the case for most professors and scientists.

For example, there was no coverage of the 2010 passing of John Selfridge in mainstream media. The only "news" sources I found that mentioned his death were a snippet in a [url=http://www.math.illinois.edu/mathtimes/mathtimes_fall10_web.pdf]local university newsletter[/url], the local county newspaper and a [url=http://math-fail.com/2010/11/rip-mathematician-john-selfridge.html]tongue-in-cheek math website[/url]. So far, I could find no mention of the passing of Hans Riesel in mainstream news. It's pretty sad, really. :sad:

[QUOTE=ixfd64;398228]I've noticed that academics often do not get much recognition when they cross the great divide. When even a minor celebrity dies, there is usually at least some fanfare and tributes. This does not seem to be the case for most professors and scientists.[/QUOTE]

Are you really surprised?

A good friend of mine was visiting us recently, and we suggest watching "The Imitation Game". It's about Alan Turing. "Who?" You know, the guy who helped break the Enigma machine, and brought computing theory seriously forward. Surely you've heard of the "Turing Test". "Ah, no..."

We started the film and she said "Oh, yeah, I know that guy! It's Benedict Cumberbatch!

Sigh....

When Grothendieck died, someone on Google+ collected a circle of people who'd commented on his death...; I added that circle to my stream but since then have been trimming names off it as bizarre posts pop up from its members. It's really unfortunate that the only people not previously in my circles in that new circle are either very quiet or are somewhat disturbed individuals. The great people in mathematics and many sciences are not that much on the radar of more typical people.

[QUOTE=chalsall;398232]A good friend of mine was visiting us recently, and we suggest watching "The Imitation Game". It's about Alan Turing. "Who?" You know, the guy who helped break the Enigma machine, and brought computing theory seriously forward. Surely you've heard of the "Turing Test". "Ah, no..."[/QUOTE]
Perhaps I can only blame myself for my ignorance, but I managed to study Mathematics to degree level without ever hearing about Alan Turing or knowing who he was. Another reason why I ought to have heard of him by then (1985) was the fact that I was gay, living in the UK, and reading a lot about the struggle for acceptance of gay people there. But no, it was as if there was a wall of silence about Turing. Well, of course there [I]was[/I] a wall of silence because his code-breaking work was so secret, but even so I find it shocking now that I could have been so ignorant back then.

A chance discovery of Andrew Hodges' biography of Turing in my local library a few years after my graduation was my first enlightenment. Without Hodges' work uncovering the details of Turing's life, I wonder if he would still be an unknown, never-mentioned figure even today.

I'm a bit surprised at the scarcity of people familiar with the Turing Test. I thought that had entered popular culture. I've seen some kind of reference to it every few years since the late 1960's - sometimes in Science Fiction, sometimes in claims that Eliza or some other program had passed it, sometimes in other contexts. I had also expected there to be a large cadre of people with some kind of computing or logic background familiar with Turing Machines and Turing Completeness - concepts I've also seen with some regularity since the mid 1970's. Both often come up in discussions such as P=NP. I became aware of his Enigma history and lifestyle complications later that this, but I was primed to pay attention when I came across it because it was already obvious that this was an important man - perhaps as influential and important as John Von Neuman or Werner Von Braun.

[QUOTE=wblipp;398264]I'm a bit surprised at the scarcity of people familiar with the Turing Test. I thought that had entered popular culture. I've seen some kind of reference to it every few years since the late 1960's - sometimes in Science Fiction, sometimes in claims that Eliza or some other program had passed it, sometimes in other contexts. I had also expected there to be a large cadre of people with some kind of computing or logic background familiar with Turing Machines and Turing Completeness - concepts I've also seen with some regularity since the mid 1970's. Both often come up in discussions such as P=NP. I became aware of his Enigma history and lifestyle complications later that this, but I was primed to pay attention when I came across it because it was already obvious that this was an important man - perhaps as influential and important as John Von Neuman or Werner Von Braun.[/QUOTE]
+2! Totally what I would say with my words, but you said it much better. We "met" Turing in the early eighties in high school (grade 9 or 10, ~1983) and I did my first program for a Turing machine at that time (which was multiplying two numbers, or something, after the teacher shown us how to add two numbers, i.e delete the zero in between, she asked us how we could multiply, and after about 10 minutes of sharing ideas which all would fail in a way or the other, the bell rung, and she left, but the puzzle hooked me, I spent half a day to do that multiplication, hehe). We had a lot of courses about calculability and tangents to it, where Turing was mentioned or "studied", and we read lots of science-fiction and bibliographical stuff related, Last "meeting" with Turing was reading [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon"]Cryptonomicon[/URL], few years ago - I commented on the forum at that time about it, a very good book, worth reading it.

Sometimes there is a delay. The obituary of Shaun Wylie in the bulletin of the LMS, for example, did not appear until 3 years after his death (and you still need to be at a university or have a personal subscription to access it).

For anyone now wondering "Who was Shaun Wylie?", this is your chance to learn!
[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Wylie[/URL]

Nice to read that, thanks for sharing!

Well, computer buffs think that it's travesty to not know who Alan Turing is and what he's done.

A maths buff thinks everyone should know who Andrew Wyles is and what he's done.

A guy who is passionate about music thinks everyone should know the name ...

Etc..


A couple of my friends had met a group of Chinese College students who had never heard of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. That is less about ignorance and more about censorship, but all the same. Turing was somewhat the same way.

My parents were in Palm Springs a couple of weeks ago and they showed me a bunch of pictures they took of Bob Hope's house from up in the mountains. I only very vaguely know who Bob Hope is. For me, all the cases of "Nope, never heard of _______" are people who are too far before my time.

I find it unfortunate that people tend to not care how the world around them works and they'd rather just press the buttons and make their computer do computer things, but I try not to judge them for not knowing the full history of the more minor aspects of their lives. In the same way, I would prefer not to be judged for not being able to immediately recognize Bob Hope's face or voice because, frankly, I don't really care.


Turing's story is a bit different because of the fact that he was gay. If it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be a huge need to know what he has done.

Do you know the stories of the big names in Civic Water and Sewer services? I don't.

[QUOTE=TheMawn;398349]In the same way, I would prefer not to be judged for not being able to immediately recognize Bob Hope's face or voice because, frankly, I don't really care. Turing's story is a bit different because of the fact that he was gay. If it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be a huge need to know what he has done.[/QUOTE]

I hear what you're saying, and mostly agree. What saddens me is how little many in the "rich world" know about people who have done serious work in the past (even if only in limited domains of their particular interest), but can talk at length about what the current celebrities did last week...

The cynic in me thinks "Keep them scared (e.g. "The War on Terror"), keep them entertained, and they'll continue buying stuff and remain benign.