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W Daniel Hillis – Richard Feynman – scholar and charming chauvinist (127/248)

666 views · Published 1 September 2017 · 1:16 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

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To listen to more of W Daniel Hillis’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzo005LM6PTERy4uxq92sWe

Born in 1956, US inventor, scientist, engineer and visionary W Daniel Hillis pioneered the concept of parallel computers and co-founded Thinking Machines and Applied Minds, which marked a new era in computing and established Hillis as a computing legend. [Listeners: Christopher Sykes and George Dyson; date recorded: 2016]

TRANSCRIPT: We had this wonderful house with people like... well, Dick Feynman would come, and Dick would explain to us about physics, but somehow he expected the women to bring him food, which even... it didn't matter if they were the engineers or the president of the company or, you know, he just sort of expected he would sit down and be brought food. And so... but they sort of did it willingly because he was so charming and told them such interesting stories. But I remember asking one engineer if it sort of bugged her that he expected her to get soup for him, and she said, 'Yes, it does kind of bug me. On the other hand, he's like the only person who's ever explained to me quantum chromodynamics as if I could understand it', so he's... there was kind of a contradiction there. So it was a pretty wonderful time and pretty magical, starting out in such a strange place in the middle of a forest.

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