It's the human computer's birthday!

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
DesiPower

DesiPower

Lifer
Nov 22, 2008
15,299
740
126
I remember she visited us when I was in primary (elementary) school back in India. Our socialist leader/dictator back in those days (Indira Gandhi), made her a superhero. Didn't know she was still such a big deal...
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,123
10,586
126
In 1977 in the USA she competed with a computer to see who could calculate the cube root of 188,132,517 faster (she won). That same year, at the Southern Methodist University she was asked to give the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds.[1][4] Her answer—546,372,891—was confirmed by calculations done at the U.S. Bureau of Standards by the Univac 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.[11]
Click to expand...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakuntala_Devi

Impressive
 
Malodrik

Malodrik

Member
Oct 20, 2013
94
0
0
I admit I had no idea who she was; I thought it was celebrating the inventor of the modern calculator
 
inf1nity

inf1nity

Golden Member
Mar 12, 2013
1,181
3
0
I have a book called "More Puzzles" written by her.. its got some very good brain teasers..
 
SagaLore

SagaLore

Elite Member
Dec 18, 2001
24,036
21
81
As I was reading through the wiki entry, I thought, what a waste. I wasn't see any mentions of a family, just a divorce. Then I finally got to the line that said she had a daughter. I hope her daughter has lots of babies. These are the types of genes we really need to keep going.


Just imagine had her and Einstein produced children.
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,123
10,586
126
SagaLore said:
As I was reading through the wiki entry, I thought, what a waste. I wasn't see any mentions of a family, just a divorce. Then I finally got to the line that said she had a daughter. I hope her daughter has lots of babies. These are the types of genes we really need to keep going.


Just imagine had her and Einstein produced children.
Click to expand...

Imagine all the Indians that have great potential, but it's unrealized due to poverty, and being cut off from modern technology. Shakuntala Devi was a rare bird, but being "pretty good" is still a compliment when compared to her. Einstein might be digging through a trash dump this instant.
 
D

dighn

Lifer
Aug 12, 2001
22,820
4
81
SagaLore said:
As I was reading through the wiki entry, I thought, what a waste. I wasn't see any mentions of a family, just a divorce. Then I finally got to the line that said she had a daughter. I hope her daughter has lots of babies. These are the types of genes we really need to keep going.


Just imagine had her and Einstein produced children.
Click to expand...

i have a feeling that while intelligence is generally inheritable, brilliance is more like the result of freak accidents of nature that can't really be reproduced in that way.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom