Menu
Putting Alan Turing on the £50 note is a triumph for British science – and for equality. Emily Grossman. In an updated extract from the bestselling Enigma history, we revisit the daring.
Alan Turing was born on 23 June, 1912, in London. His father was in the Indian Civil Service and Turing's parents lived in India until his father's retirement in 1926. Turing and his brother stayed with friends and relatives in England. Turing studied mathematics at Cambridge University, and subsequently taught there, working in the burgeoning world of quantum mechanics. It was at Cambridge that he developed the proof which states that automatic computation cannot solve all mathematical problems. This concept, also known as the Turing machine, is considered the basis for the modern theory of computation.
In 1936, Turing went to Princeton University in America, returning to England in 1938. He began to work secretly part-time for the British cryptanalytic department, the Government Code and Cypher School. On the outbreak of war he took up full-time work at its headquarters, Bletchley Park.
Here he played a vital role in deciphering the messages encrypted by the German Enigma machine, which provided vital intelligence for the Allies. He took the lead in a team that designed a machine known as a bombe that successfully decoded German messages. He became a well-known and rather eccentric figure at Bletchley.
After the war, Turing turned his thoughts to the development of a machine that would logically process information. He worked first for the National Physical Laboratory (1945-1948). His plans were dismissed by his colleagues and the lab lost out on being the first to design a digital computer. It is thought that Turing's blueprint would have secured them the honour, as his machine was capable of computation speeds higher than the others. In 1949, he went to Manchester University where he directed the computing laboratory and developed a body of work that helped to form the basis for the field of artificial intelligence. In 1951 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1952, Turing was arrested and tried for homosexuality, then a criminal offence. To avoid prison, he accepted injections of oestrogen for a year, which were intended to neutralise his libido. In that era, homosexuals were considered a security risk as they were open to blackmail. Turing's security clearance was withdrawn, meaning he could no longer work for GCHQ, the post-war successor to Bletchley Park.
He committed suicide on 7 June, 1954.
Author | Andrew Hodges |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Subject | Alan Turing (1912–1954) |
Genre | Biography |
Published | 1983 (Burnett Books/Hutchinson, UK & Simon & Schuster, USA) |
Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback, audio) |
Pages | 587 |
ISBN | 0-671-49207-1 |
OCLC | 11516745 |
510.92 | |
LC Class | QA29.T8H63 |
Alan Turing: The Enigma (1983) is a biography of the British mathematician, codebreaker, and early computer scientist, Alan Turing (1912–1954) by Andrew Hodges. The book covers Alan Turing's life and work. The American 2014 film The Imitation Game is loosely based on the book, with dramatization.
Editions[edit]
The following editions of the book exist:[1]
- Hardback
- UK: Burnett Books/Hutchinson (1983)
- US: Simon & Schuster (1983)
- Paperback
- UK: Counterpoint (Alan Turing: The Enigma of Intelligence, without photographs)
- US: Touchstone Books
- UK: Vintage Books (1992–2012, including the 2012 centenary edition)
- US: Walker Books (2000–2005)
- US: Princeton University Press (2014)
New editions appeared in 2012, for the centenary of Turing's birth, and 2014, the year the film The Imitation Game was released.[2]
- Audio
- Audible.co.uk (30-hour recording)[3]
Reviews[edit]
The book has been widely reviewed by newspapers and magazines[1] including The Guardian, The Independent,[4]Los Angeles Times, Nature, New Statesman, New Yorker, New York Times, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Sunday Times, Time Out, Times Literary Supplement, Wall Street Journal.[5]
Influence[edit]
The book inspired the 2014 film The Imitation Game, directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.
See also[edit]
- The Annotated Turing (2008)
- The Turing Guide (2017)
References[edit]
- ^ ab'Alan Turing: The Enigma'. www.turing.org.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^'Alan Turing: The Enigma – The Book That Inspired the Film The Imitation Game – Andrew Hodges'. UK: Penguin. 13 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- ^'Alan Turing: The Enigma'. Audible.co.uk. Audible Inc. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^Hirst, Christopher (15 June 2012). 'Alan Turing: The Enigma, By Andrew Hodges'. The Independent.
- ^McKay, Sinclair (9 November 2012). 'On ciphers and codebreakers during World War II and after'. Wall Street Journal.
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alan_Turing:_The_Enigma&oldid=931249509'