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Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine - The Long Now

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Published monthly, the member newsletter gives in-depth and behind the scenes updates on Long Now's projects. Special updates on the 10,000 Year Clock project are posted on the members only Clock Blog. by W. Daniel Hillis for Physics Today Reprinted with permission from Phys. Today 42(2), 78 (1989). Copyright 1989, American Institute of Physics. Photo by Faustin Bray One day when I was having lunch with Richard Feynman, I mentioned to him that I was planning to start a company to build a parallel computer with a million processors. His reaction was unequivocal, "That is positively the dopiest idea I ever heard." For Richard a crazy idea was an opportunity to either prove it wrong or prove it right. Either way, he was interested. By the end of lunch he had agreed to spend the summer working at the company. Richard's interest in computing went back to his days at Los Alamos, where he supervised the "computers," that is, the people who operated the mechanical calculators. There he was in

f `888888x./ ' `*88888~ \. . `?)X. `~=-^ X88> X8888 488888 .xx. 88888X .@8c '*8888. '88888> 02025 88888 '8888> ^* `8888> `888 "8888 8% `"888x--> Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine — LONG NOW IDEAS Dr. Richard Feynman during the Special Lecture: the Motion of Planets Around the Sun, 01964 Long-term Thinking Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine For Richard, a crazy idea was an opportunity to either prove it wrong or prove it right. by Danny Hillis Feb 8, 02017 One of the most popular pieces of writing on our site is Long Now co-founder Danny Hillis ’ remembrance of building an expe

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