历史与人物longnow.org编辑精选
理查德·费曼与 Connection Machine
Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine
2010 — 2021，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这篇长文回忆费曼晚年参与 Connection Machine 并行计算机项目的经历：他分析路由器、用自创的并行 Basic 编写 QCD 程序，也涉足细胞自动机等主题。作者以亲历者视角呈现费曼如何用物理学家的直觉处理计算问题，以及他在全新领域中作为“业余者”的探索方式。
为什么经久不衰：它经久不衰，因为它既是费曼晚年鲜为人知的计算工作的一手记录，也生动展示了一位顶尖物理学家面对全新领域时的好奇、直觉与谦逊，今天读仍能启发跨学科探索。
HN 评论精选
费曼为 QCD 自创并行 Basic 并手工模拟性能，但传记很少记录他的计算工作。
为了弄清这在实践中效果如何，费曼必须为量子色动力学（QCD）写一个计算机程序。由于理查德真正熟悉的唯一计算机语言是 Basic，他自创了一种并行版 Basic，用它写程序，然后手工模拟，以估算它在 Connection Machine 上能跑多快。我有费曼的大部分回忆录和几本传记，但其中很少提到他的计算工作，可能是因为这在他其他成就面前显得微不足道。即便如此，正如原文所说，他也很像个纸笔型的人，能读到更多关于他计算工作的内容会很有意思。
danso查看英文原文
> To find out how well this would work in practice, Feynman had to write a computer program for QCD. Since the only computer language Richard was really familiar with was Basic, he made up a parallel version of Basic in which he wrote the program and then simulated it by hand to estimate how fast it would run on the Connection Machine. I have most of Feynman's memoirs and a few of his biographies, but I only see scant references to his work in computing, possibly because they seem so trivial to his other accomplishments. That said, it would be interesting to read more about his computational work, given, as the OP says, that he was also very much a pencil and paper guy.
费曼用偏微分方程分析路由器，把布尔电路视为连续可微系统，让计算机设计者惊讶。
到 1983 年夏天结束时，理查德已完成对路由器行为的分析；令我们惊讶又好笑的是，他给出答案的形式是一组偏微分方程。对物理学家这也许自然，但对计算机设计者来说，把一组布尔电路当作连续、可微的系统有点奇怪。费曼的路由器方程使用连续量作为变量，比如“消息地址中 1 比特的平均数量”。我更习惯用归纳证明和分情况分析，而不是对“1 的数量”关于时间求导。
Florin_Andrei查看英文原文
"By the end of that summer of 1983, Richard had completed his analysis of the behavior of the router, and much to our surprise and amusement, he presented his answer in the form of a set of partial differential equations. To a physicist this may seem natural, but to a computer designer, treating a set of boolean circuits as a continuous, differentiable system is a bit strange. Feynman's router equations were in terms of variables representing continuous quantities such as "the average number of 1 bits in a message address." I was much more accustomed to seeing analysis in terms of inductive proof and case analysis than taking the derivative of "the number of 1's" with respect to time." Whoa.
文章也暴露费曼的性别偏见；其魅力常让人原谅这些缺点。
我以前读过这篇，但又读了一遍，再次被费曼天才的务实一面打动。然而，每个天才都有不受欢迎的一面：理查德迷人的一面让人们原谅他不迷人的特点。例如，在很多方面理查德是个性别歧视者。每到他每天喝汤的时候，他会环顾四周找最近的“女孩”，问她能不能把汤端给他；无论她是厨师、工程师还是公司总裁，都无所谓。我曾问一位刚被这样对待的女工程师这是否让她困扰。“是的，这真的很烦我，”她说。“但另一方面，他是唯一一个曾把量子力学解释得让我能听懂的人。”这就是理查德魅力的本质。读《别逗了，费曼先生》传记时，有一件事让我很困扰：他对儿子和女儿的态度差别很大。他好像很享受年幼的儿子玩有趣的游戏，但对女儿听起来很不耐烦，说她只想反复听同一个故事。
Jun8查看英文原文
I had read this before but went ahead and read it again anyway and was again struck by the practicality of Feynman's genius. However, as always, every genius has their undesirable part: "The charming side of Richard helped people forgive him for his uncharming characteristics. For example, in many ways Richard was a sexist. Whenever it came time for his daily bowl of soup he would look around for the nearest "girl" and ask if she would fetch it to him. It did not matter if she was the cook, an engineer, or the president of the company. I once asked a female engineer who had just been a victim of this if it bothered her. "Yes, it really annoys me," she said. "On the other hand, he is the only one who ever explained quantum mechanics to me as if I could understand it." That was the essence of Richard's charm." When I was reading Feynman's biography (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!) one thing that really bothered me was the big difference in his approach to his son and daughter. He seemed to relish how, when his young boy got his interesting games, but sounded quite impatient with his daughter, saying she only wanted the same story repeated to her.
费曼与作者在多个新领域都是业余探索者；正因为领域全新，业余者反而推动了进展。
回顾起来，我意识到，在我们一起做几乎每件事时，我们都是业余者。在数字物理、神经网络，甚至并行计算中，我们从未真正知道自己在做什么。但我们研究的东西太新了，其他人也都不确切知道自己在做什么。正是业余者取得了进展。
sz查看英文原文
A good read every time. This part stood out: "In retrospect I realize that in almost everything that we worked on together, we were both amateurs. In digital physics, neural networks, even parallel computing, we never really knew what we were doing. But the things that we studied were so new that no one else knew exactly what they were doing either. It was amateurs who made the progress."
历次讨论
同类还值得读
开发者无薪坚持完成 Mac 图形计算器：一个秘密项目的故事
Dev stays without pay to finish Mac Graphing Calculator as skunkworks project
苹果 Mac 图形计算器（Graphing Calculator）开发者的亲述：在项目被砍后，几位工程师在没有报酬、没有正式授权的情况下，以“地下项目”方式偷偷留在公司把软件做完…
历史与人物上首页 6 次 · 2009–2022pacifict.com负 2000 行代码
-2000 Lines of Code
folklore.org 上 Andy Hertzfeld 记录的一则苹果 Macintosh 开发轶事：Bill Atkinson 被问到写了多少行代码时，回答“-2000 行…
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2014–2022folklore.org编辑精选Dennis Ritchie 的第一版 C 编译器（约 1972 年）
Dennis Ritchie’s first C compiler (c. 1972)
这个 GitHub 仓库保存了 Dennis Ritchie 约 1972 年编写的最早 C 编译器源码，是 C 语言和 Unix 早期历史的一手材料。
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2013–2025github.com一位破解赛马密码的赌徒
A Gambler Who Cracked the Horse-Racing Code (2018)
彭博社 2018 年的长篇特写，讲述数学家 Bill Benter 如何用统计模型和算法在赛马博彩中持续盈利、累计赢得近十亿美元的故事。
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2018–2024bloomberg.comDB-19：复活一个过时的连接器
DB-19: Resurrecting an Obsolete Connector
讲述作者如何为一个已经停产的 DB-19 连接器寻找制造途径，并最终小批量复刻出来。
历史与人物上首页 4 次 · 2016–2024bigmessowires.com