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> The relationship between math and spirituality was very strong back then! On Seymour Cray: Another favorite pastime was digging a tunnel under his home; he

> The relationship between math and spirituality was very strong back then! On Seymour Cray: Another favorite pastime was digging a tunnel under his home; he attributed the secret of his success to "visits by elves" while he worked in the tunnel: "While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem." [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray

pcdoodle 3y ago
That wiki was a fun read! It's fun to speculate about the elves and the tunnels.
ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
That sounds like he was being figurative. He probably meant that he got ideas while working. Every morning, I get up at 5, and take a 5K walk. During that time, I tend to "triage" the day ahead, and often solve problems that were vexing me, the night before. Part of my walk is around a local high school track. There is a small flock of killdeer birds, that hang out there, and I guess they give me the ideas I have, as they often come to me, at that point in my walk. I enjoyed this part: > One story has it that when Cray was asked by management to provide detailed one-year and five-year plans for his next machine, he simply wrote, "Five-year goal: Build the biggest computer in the world. One year goal: One-fifth of the above." And another time, when expected to write a multi-page detailed status report for the company executives, Cray's two sentence report read: "Activity is progressing satisfactorily as outlined under the June plan. There have been no significant changes or deviations from the June plan."
- 2devnull 3y ago
  Cray sounds mildly autistic.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
    A lot of these folks are.
  - alganet 3y ago
    For this particular story, he sounds more like a cynic making fun of some bureaucrats.
CommitSyn 3y ago
I'm actually curious if "digging in the tunnel" is a euphemism for using psychedelics, which would have been severely frowned upon at the time. The elves are known for their wisdom in helping you see the world and solve problems in unique ways. https://maps.org/2004/08/08/nobel-prize-genius-crick-was-high-on-lsd-when-he-discovered-dna/ https://maps.org/2004/08/08/nobel-prize-genius-crick-was-hig... > FRANCIS CRICK, the Nobel Prize-winning father of modern genetics, was under the influence of LSD when he first deduced the double-helix structure of DNA nearly 50 years ago. > The abrasive and unorthodox Crick and his brilliant American co- researcher James Watson famously celebrated their eureka moment in March 1953 by running from the now legendary Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge to the nearby Eagle pub, where they announced over pints of bitter that they had discovered the secret of life. > Crick, who died ten days ago, aged 88, later told a fellow scientist that he often used small doses of LSD then an experimental drug used in psychotherapy to boost his powers of thought. He said it was LSD, not the Eagle’s warm beer, that helped him to unravel the structure of DNA, the discovery that won him the Nobel Prize.
- MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
  DMT is pretty famous for, oddly, inducing hallucinations of Machine Elves in people. Don't discard the building tunnels part though, it is a weirdly popular hobby among the very male-brained.
  - CommitSyn 3y ago
    Funny enough DMT is the only psychedelic that's ever given me real, true insight and legitimately changed my life after a single breakthrough dose, 99.5% of which I didn't remember even immediately after 'coming to' (and still don't). I was suicidally depressed and had been for a number of years, struggling with drugs and depression, had all but given up on life. I did it alone not meaning to break through. Immediately after my breakthrough, I was so overjoyed and happy and couldn't help but bellow out "there is so much love in the universe!!" over and over -- right after a run to the washroom to purge a rainbow from my mouth. Thankfully I was home alone. I immediately called my loved ones to talk to them and tell them how much I loved them. My sister (psych major) thought I was going to end my life soon because I was suddenly so happy and unburdened. Suicidal ideation ceased for over 5 years, and still has only come out in the rare circumstance I was under extreme emotional distress. The majority of the lessons I learned -- many obvious in retrospect, I feel I was almost purposely blinding myself from seeing them because it was easier not to -- came in dreams and waking daydream 'visions' in the days after my trip, and my sudden ability to notice my problems weren't so serious, I just needed to look at them from a different viewpoint, of which there are many. The only person who noticed (or mentioned) any difference right away in me, was the wife of a client -- a devout Hindu woman. As soon as she saw me a few days after my trip she said "MyName, are you alright?" with a concerned look on her face. I still wonder what she noticed or what concerned her. I haven't felt the need to do it or any other psychedelics since, but for some reason I felt I'd share a quick tale of my story since the topic of machine elves and insights came up. I was also, coincidentally (common as it is, apparently?) obsessed with digging a tunnel as far as I could as a 12-13 year old boy until it collapsed on me after about 5ft because I'd started on an unstable hill. That was the end of my tunneling, although I suddenly have a strange urge to grab a shovel.

pcdoodle 3y ago

That wiki was a fun read! It's fun to speculate about the elves and the tunnels.

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago

That sounds like he was being figurative. He probably meant that he got ideas while working. Every morning, I get up at 5, and take a 5K walk. During that time, I tend to "triage" the day ahead, and often solve problems that were vexing me, the night before. Part of my walk is around a local high school track. There is a small flock of killdeer birds, that hang out there, and I guess they give me the ideas I have, as they often come to me, at that point in my walk. I enjoyed this part: > One story has it that when Cray was asked by management to provide detailed one-year and five-year plans for his next machine, he simply wrote, "Five-year goal: Build the biggest computer in the world. One year goal: One-fifth of the above." And another time, when expected to write a multi-page detailed status report for the company executives, Cray's two sentence report read: "Activity is progressing satisfactorily as outlined under the June plan. There have been no significant changes or deviations from the June plan."

2devnull 3y ago
Cray sounds mildly autistic.
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  A lot of these folks are.
- alganet 3y ago
  For this particular story, he sounds more like a cynic making fun of some bureaucrats.

CommitSyn 3y ago

I'm actually curious if "digging in the tunnel" is a euphemism for using psychedelics, which would have been severely frowned upon at the time. The elves are known for their wisdom in helping you see the world and solve problems in unique ways. https://maps.org/2004/08/08/nobel-prize-genius-crick-was-high-on-lsd-when-he-discovered-dna/ https://maps.org/2004/08/08/nobel-prize-genius-crick-was-hig... > FRANCIS CRICK, the Nobel Prize-winning father of modern genetics, was under the influence of LSD when he first deduced the double-helix structure of DNA nearly 50 years ago. > The abrasive and unorthodox Crick and his brilliant American co- researcher James Watson famously celebrated their eureka moment in March 1953 by running from the now legendary Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge to the nearby Eagle pub, where they announced over pints of bitter that they had discovered the secret of life. > Crick, who died ten days ago, aged 88, later told a fellow scientist that he often used small doses of LSD then an experimental drug used in psychotherapy to boost his powers of thought. He said it was LSD, not the Eagle’s warm beer, that helped him to unravel the structure of DNA, the discovery that won him the Nobel Prize.

MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
DMT is pretty famous for, oddly, inducing hallucinations of Machine Elves in people. Don't discard the building tunnels part though, it is a weirdly popular hobby among the very male-brained.
- CommitSyn 3y ago
  Funny enough DMT is the only psychedelic that's ever given me real, true insight and legitimately changed my life after a single breakthrough dose, 99.5% of which I didn't remember even immediately after 'coming to' (and still don't). I was suicidally depressed and had been for a number of years, struggling with drugs and depression, had all but given up on life. I did it alone not meaning to break through. Immediately after my breakthrough, I was so overjoyed and happy and couldn't help but bellow out "there is so much love in the universe!!" over and over -- right after a run to the washroom to purge a rainbow from my mouth. Thankfully I was home alone. I immediately called my loved ones to talk to them and tell them how much I loved them. My sister (psych major) thought I was going to end my life soon because I was suddenly so happy and unburdened. Suicidal ideation ceased for over 5 years, and still has only come out in the rare circumstance I was under extreme emotional distress. The majority of the lessons I learned -- many obvious in retrospect, I feel I was almost purposely blinding myself from seeing them because it was easier not to -- came in dreams and waking daydream 'visions' in the days after my trip, and my sudden ability to notice my problems weren't so serious, I just needed to look at them from a different viewpoint, of which there are many. The only person who noticed (or mentioned) any difference right away in me, was the wife of a client -- a devout Hindu woman. As soon as she saw me a few days after my trip she said "MyName, are you alright?" with a concerned look on her face. I still wonder what she noticed or what concerned her. I haven't felt the need to do it or any other psychedelics since, but for some reason I felt I'd share a quick tale of my story since the topic of machine elves and insights came up. I was also, coincidentally (common as it is, apparently?) obsessed with digging a tunnel as far as I could as a 12-13 year old boy until it collapsed on me after about 5ft because I'd started on an unstable hill. That was the end of my tunneling, although I suddenly have a strange urge to grab a shovel.