Sidley said to the researchers of this programmer, "He told me it came upon him when he was drunk and whacked out of his brain." Later research, however, sugge

Sidley said to the researchers of this programmer, "He told me it came upon him when he was drunk and whacked out of his brain." Later research, however, suggests that although the original programmer and his mathematical collaborator did devise the algorithm at a bar, they may have suggested or encouraged the drunken blackout story merely to avoid having to explain or assign intellectual property rights for the algorithm.