![]() ![]() ![]() Hodges has the mathematical knowledge to explain the intellectual significance of Turing's work, while never losing sight of the human and social picture: And Turing died because his identity as a homosexual was incompatible with cold-war ideas of security, implemented with machines and remorseless logic: "It was his own invention, and it killed the goose that laid the golden eggs."Īndrew Hodges's remarkable insight weaves Turing's mathematical and computer work with his personal life to produce one of the best biographies of our time, and the basis of the Derek Jacobi movie Breaking the Code. ![]() His work cracking the German's Enigma machine code was, in many ways, the first triumph of computer science. A pure mathematician from a tradition that prided itself on its impracticality, Turing laid the foundations for modern computer science, writes Andrew Hodges:Īlan had proved that there was no "miraculous machine" that could solve all mathematical problems, but in the process he had discovered something almost equally miraculous, the idea of a universal machine that could take over the work of any machine.ĭuring World War II, Turing was the intellectual star of Bletchley Park, the secret British cryptography unit. ![]() Alan Turing died in 1954, but the themes of his life epitomize the turn of the millennium. ![]()
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