On: John Nash's Letter to the NSA

[moonboots]

I can't help but think that the NSA would have taken the letter more seriously if had been typed.

http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/nash_letters/nash_lett...

[thebooktocome → moonboots]

Type math? In 1955? That would have required specialized equipment, possibly a secretary. Nash clearly believed that the contents were of national security interest.

[rdl → thebooktocome]

I thought the standard thing to do was type the text and then include the equations or diagrams as hand drawn figures in empty space on the page.

[moonboots → thebooktocome]

He should have invented TeX.

[VikingCoder → moonboots]

I think he did. Unfortunately he also invented fonts that appear to be hand-drawn by a person suffering from schizophrenia. =(

[SimHacker → VikingCoder]

Here's a font that appears to be hand-drawn by a person suffering from megalomania: http://www.fonts101.com/fonts/view/Uncategorized/34398/Dijks...

[vecter → VikingCoder]

I can't tell if you're kidding or not, but John Nash definitely did not invent TeX: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX.

[DanBC → thebooktocome]

The diagram with the red and blue lines is particularly "interesting" for anyone not keeping up with the math.

"I'm not a crank. Here's a diagram of my machine." {Blue and red line everywhere}.

[jparise → moonboots]

"I hope my handwriting, etc. do not give the impression I am just a crank or circle-squarer."

It seems he considered how a handwritten letter might be perceived.

[logicalmind → moonboots]

Maybe the fact that it is not typed is a key to it's hidden meaning. Maybe there are reasons that only parts of this letter are clarified...

In all seriousness, this pdf basically unreadable. It would be nice if there was a readable version available to the general public. If there is one, please let me know because this is very interesting.

[Tossrock → logicalmind]

Basically unreadable? It's perfectly readable to me. Perhaps my own poor handwriting has given me better handwriting recognition.

[logicalmind → Tossrock]

The first time I looked at this pdf there were blocks of printed text all over the place that floated over the handwritten text. By floating over I mean literally covering the written text. After I read your comment I looked at it again and it was simply the handwritten text.

I'm not sure if my pdf reader confused things or the nsa has a special redirect for me. But the complete handwritten text is perfectly readable to me now. I'm not sure what I saw before, but it was odd...