The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic
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2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderHaving read _Principia_ did Pitts read Kurt Goedel[1]? I would very much like to know what he thought of it! What an incredibly sad story - burning years of work in meloncholy, all thanks to the lies of an angry woman. Wiener, though, shares a great deal of blame - a man should not pass judgement in on his friends without inquiring into the truth of the matter. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_...
It's interesting to see that neural nets were there from the beginning of the computing age. McColloch, Pitts and von Neumann were thinking of a connectionist approach from the start. Such a sad end for Pitts. I couldn't help thinking that he was kind of like Will in Good Will Hunting - a complete outsider, a self-taught genius with a very rough upbringing and lots of demons from that past.
(early 2015) previous discussion, 3 years ago, 23 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9003735
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 362
- Total comments
- 97
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-02-05 | The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with LogicFirst breakout · Best thread | robgering | 147 | 23 |
| 2015-03-12 | The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic | orbifold | 2 | 0 |
| 2017-12-22 | Walter Pitts pioneered neural networks. Then he lit his entire PhD on fire | bolmn | 73 | 8 |
| 2019-05-07 | The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic – 2/5/2015 Nautil.us Issue 21 | h4t | 2 | 0 |
| 2020-08-01 | The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic (2015) | pseudolus | 3 | 0 |
| 2021-03-30 | A man who tried to redeem the world with logic (2015)Latest 20+ point return | JPLeRouzic | 135 | 66 |