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From:
, Sunday, February 1, 2004
(...) Contemporary cognitive science would be impossible without computers, so ''Turing" makes a fitting companion to ''Radiant Cool." ''Turing," though, is a considerably more accomplished novel. Three brilliant, beautiful, glamorous, globe-girdling human characters form a love triangle that frames the main story, which is a series of lessons on the history and future of thought, delivered by a likable super-program named after the first and greatest of computer scientists, Alan Turing.
The lessons center on mathematics, but they're nontechnical and entirely accessible. (The author, a computer science professor at Berkeley, must be a superb lecturer.) There are occasional gleams of futuristic cybergear -- the novel is set a little further on in the 21st century, and two of the lovers are world-class code writers. But what's most delightful about ''Turing" is the charmed glow that Papadimitriou's prose sheds all around: on sunny Mediterranean islands, on the pangs of love, even on death, of which the all-wise ''Turing" gives an astonishing account to a dying character. And if you know anything of Turing's life -- one of the most interesting in the 20th century -- ''Turing" 's conclusion is exquisitely affecting (...)
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, Sunday, December 7, 2003[...] Papadimitriou celebrates the Internet's promise of social
democratization through information access, free offerings and
global-village-style open discourse. A wry wit and warmth pervade the
lectures, and the book's multiple elements dovetail in an ingenious
climax. A newsgroup wrap-up deconstructs the story and fills in the
blanks, even as some of the subscribers unwittingly skewer themselves
with their nationalism and homophobia. As long as expectations are in
the computer education rather than the fiction camp, "Turing" delivers
the goods.
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