Great post. Turing should be viewed in context of Von Neumann, Konrad Zuse and people who designed the Enigma crypto-machine. It is sad to be reminded that Turing’s self-esteem was so low that he saw no exit but to kill himself, at the time when he was celebrated as a genius. It tells you a few things about so-called social norms and dumbed-down users.
I rather like the Apple logo theory, even if it is an urban legend.
Cryptonomicon is the first I’d ever even heard of Turing’s preference for men. Standard blurbs don’t hint at it at all. And thank goodness - for my sake - we’ve gone beyond chemical castration - at least, in most of the world. In many parts of the world gay rights is still a pipe dream.
More on Arthur Scherbius, designer of Enigma:
More on Turing and inside story of Bletchley Park:
@Tim Yen: Von Neuman was a fan of Turing’s work, and references are cited in the book to show that what we think of as his architecture is really adapted from Turing’s work. The interesting point to note, is the paper in which the book and all of this is based on was not set out to design a computer - that is only a side effect. The creation of the programmable computer was merely a needed step to prove there is no solution to the Entscheidung’s Problem.
(the reason that’s reverent to us today is it also means we’ll never have a generic process that can prove our code works - i.e. the One True Unit Test is a mythical creature)
Breaking of Enigma was also used to shift the discovery to the British, although British researchers were jumpstarted by their colleagues in Poland:
http://www.amazon.com/Enigma-German-Machine-Foreign-intelligence/dp/0890935475
Apples already have cyanide in their seeds…
Damn you Jeff. Every time I think about what we owe that man, and how he was rewarded, I’m pissed off for days. You just had to go remind me. I had work I wanted to get done today too…
The English title of Simon Singh’s book is The Code Book: http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Code_Book.html - highly recommended, btw. It features a potted biography of Turing, including the Snow White story.
Surprising that Cryptonomicon was not mentioned in your entry, Jeff… its a fun (if not fantastic) look at Turing.
Those of you who have not read it - stop reading this and go get a copy!
Having checked the website myself, The Code Book is the original book, The Science of Secrecy is the name of the TV series and its tie-in book, which is based on The Code Book. Not confusing, no.
Don’t let the long German words scare you. They’re always taking long phrases and putting them together into single words.
Actually, we do this, because we are to lazy to invent new words. The scary look is just a nice side effect.
Nothing in Genesis mentions an apple…
@ rwinston,
You are correct sir. You can find a reference to this fact here:
What is perhaps even sadder are the conditions that continue to exist. How many young Turings die as teen agers, facing the same persecution? Not, it’s not instituionalized as it was then, but it can be pretty harsh just the same.
Turning’s death is sad not because he was a great mind. Even ‘little’ minds deserve to not be harassed and persecuted.
@ Bloodboiler,
And, Descartes put together hydraulic automata.
You know there is a difference between automated puppets and robots, right?
The computer you’re using to read this post is based on the mathematical model laid out in that thirty-six page 1936 paper.
Well, yes and no. Yes in the same sense that the computer you’re using is loosely conceptually based on the Babbage difference engine. No in the sense that, no, our computers don’t run on the Turing machine architecture in any strict way whatsoever. We owe a lot more to the Von Neumann architecture than to the Turing description. (Yes, Von Neumann was doing this in the context of Turing, but no, it is not a simple step from Turing to Von Neumann.)
(Have you actually read the Turing test paper? It’s really quite interesting – much more bizarre than the version of the Turing test as known today. The original Turing test was about distinguishing humans from machines in the context of games in which men pretend to be women and vice versa.)
Colossus is being rebuilt, in the face of the terrible predations of developers (sic) on Bletchley Park. Here is Tony Sale’s project:
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/rebuild.htm
I believe the Beeb had a piece about this recently.
Personally I like Grace Hopper http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/hopper.htm
She basically invented the first compiler and was a tireless advocate for computers for a long long time.
But yes, I could have written about the layout, Petzold’s writing/research, etc. You’ll just have to trust me, I suppose: all top notch.
Could have? Should have! If for no other reason than at least to be consistent with every other book review on this site.
Still – you have to have some interest in the subject before we even begin.
I just don’t understand why you’d spruke a book whose content you don’t regard as accessible enough (presumably) to blog about at length. I know Turing machines are hard but they’re cool and very important for understanding computability!
If you wanted to talk about Turing in the general sense you didn’t need to so prominently feature the book. Since you did, you could have at least commented on the content beyond trust me! it’s great! (to paraphrase your post).
I’m trying hard to think this isn’t some shameless plug for a book you didn’t read but you’re not making it easy 