“The process of science doesn't work unless young scientists have the freedom to attack and tear down old dogmas...Science flourishes where art and free speech flourish.”
The narrative focuses on mathematics, cryptology, and computing and the revolutionaries around fictionalized accounts of historical events. It highlights the elements that went into for these young scientists to figure out ways to solve major issues in science. For instance, the creation of the Turing machine to break codes during the war demonstrates the inner working of young minds. Furthermore, Randy Waterhouse is seen applying mathematics to create code-breaking programs and computer hacking. Thus, the statement illustrates how any futuristic idea by young minds end up defining the next shift in the science world and society in general. The Turing machine would become the basis for modern computers, and coding abilities define the technology of the Information age.
“Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be –or to be indistinguishable from –self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.”
The novel centers and switches between two time periods, the peak of the Second World War and the internet boom of the nineties. Thus, it addresses the shifting dynamic in the tech world as the information age is greeted with the possessions of personal computers. Therefore, it demonstrates this dynamic that would become a norm in the years that will follow the boom. The quotation highlights the internet troll culture that is emerging which involves opinionated computer users putting an effort to aggravate other users. Thus, captures the crux of the internet age in a nutshell, since it has become defined by this dynamic with every year that passes.
