Alan Turing: The Enigma
Nov 2012 · Random House
4.5star
106 reviewsreport
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768
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About this ebook
The official book behind the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley
Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.
But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.
Turing's far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.
Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.
But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.
Turing's far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.
Ratings and reviews
4.5
106 reviews
Hani Elmoughrabi
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April 7, 2024
Must read for all. Should be taught to the young kids in grade school, this is the history they should know. Knowing that a few people contributed so much to ending the devastating second world war, and how one person managed to inspire an entire field of study that touches everyone's lives today and into the future. How the backward British government and legal system turned their back on the singular genius of his generation, an unsung war hero, father of computer science, and a gay man into someone that chose to end his life rather than suffer their so-called justice any longer.
Pikasshi
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May 14, 2015
I don't know, I'm not read this yet. But I'm pretty sure this novel is a really must have. I kind of having a feeling that this novel is a type of biography, and fyi, I really don't fancy biography as my reading medium. But after I watch "The Imitation Game", I really hope one day I have this book in my possession.
7 people found this review helpful
Chris Pennington
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May 26, 2015
Just shows how much we owe to a few people we have never heard of previously. Who else could be credited with single handedly shortening WW2 and inventing the basis of the modern computer systems we all take for granted today.
16 people found this review helpful
About the author
Andrew Hodges is Tutor in Mathematics at Wadham College, Oxford University. His classic text of 1983, since translated into several languages, created a new kind of biography, with mathematics, science, computing, war history, philosophy and gay liberation woven into a single personal narrative. He is an active contributor to the mathematics of fundamental physics, as a follower of Roger Penrose. See www.turing.org.uk for further material.
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