Pgs. 1-62 Summary

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson is a hilarious and informative book about code breaking and cryptology. The novel is concerned with several generations of math geniuses and computer whizzes who are all tied together through gold the Axis powers buried in the Philippines near the end of World War II.

The book opens with Corperal Bobby Shaftoe, Private Wiley and other Marines driving a truck full of Alpha Station's code books and files through the streets of Shanhai, China.

In America, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse is growing up, spending his freshman year at Iowa State University and his sophomore year at Princeton. He is very Interested in mathematics. He befriends two men, Alan and Rudy, who are also interested in mathematics and building various machines based on mathematics. Alan wants to build a Universal Turing Machine so he can beat Rudy at chess...