What would have happened if....
Picked up Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, and skimmed through it during the weekend. (It's one of those books that you can just pick up and drift into. Stephenson is unequalled at making these kind of "coherent worlds".) I happened to find the section where Alan Turing, and a non-historical character are working through an analogy about the workings the Enigma machine, the second world war coding device, by talking about the chain falling off of a bike in a regular sequence.
Now, Alan Turing eventually was hounded for his homosexuality, and took his own life. (After the Second World War.) then I was thinking about this kind of person when my mind strayed onto Arther C. Clarke. Clarke is very silent about his own sexuality, and when directly questioned about being gay replies, he is 'merely mildly cheerful'.
Now, imagine a chance encounter between these potentially like minded chaps. One the inventor if much of modern information processing theory, and the other the inventor of the geostationary satellite. Both of course, British. Imagine, if you will, the triumphal speech that Churchill might have read out in Parliament.
"Members of the House, I am able to bring you news today of a triumph of British Science, such as might never hitherto have been imagined. Our finest minds, working in concert, have suceeded in creating a truly modern marvel. An artifical moon has been loaded into a rocket, and send far out into the untracked wastes of space. There, by virtue of its vastly elongated orbit, it hangs apparently stationary in the sky, looking down over the affairs of our dominions. Within the body of this machine, is a calculating machine so compact, that within a space less than that of a Post Office telephone box, we are able to carry out mathematical calculations of unimaginable complexity without any human intervention. This incredible invention will bring radio-telephony to the far-flung corners of the British Empire, bringing us all closer together in the Commonwealth. Accordingly, our historic first radiogram will be tomorrow at noon, when his Majesty the King will address the Empire. This will be followed by Over-by-Over reporting of the Cricket First Test from Headingley. I think you will join with me, members of this house, in offering our hearfelt thanks to both Mr Turing, and Mr Clarke, for this boon to our daily lives."
Well, maybe its just as well they didn't meet.
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