From: A Madman dreams of Turing Machines

From her terrific book “A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines” , this is a quote towards the end of the book in which Janna reflects on what these two extraordinary thinkers meantI Even out of context, I find it poetic!

“…….They are here in our minds, Turing’s luminescent gems, Gödel’s Platonic forms. There are no social hierarchies to scale. No racial barriers. Given to us along with our brains. Built into the structure of our thoughts—no bullying into blind faith, no threats of eternal damnation—just honesty, truth, and reason.

I am here in the middle of an unfinished story. I used to believe that one day I would come to some kind of conclusion, some calming resolution, and the restlessness would end. But that will never happen. Even now, I am moving toward a train. My heart is thumping. My lungs are working. There is a man, a woman, a bench, the glasses, the smooth hair, an umbrella. We are all caught in the stream of a complicated legacy—a proof of the limits of human reason, a proof of our boundlessness. A declaration that we were down here on this crowded, lonely planet, a declaration that we mattered, we living clumps of ash, that each of us was once somebody, that we strove for what we could never have, that we could admit as much. That was us— funny and lousy and great all at once.”

from: A Madman Dreams of Turning Machines