May 28
Alan M. Turing: More than a maths brain
I’ve certainly noted before right now that I am astonishingly bad at math. It’s absolutely not my bag. The problem below is all smoke and mirrors, fancy looking, but easy enough for a chimp to figure. I’m not a maths brain, not by any stretch of the term, not like a true maths brain, Alan M. Turing. Though, after reading a biography by Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma, it’s plain that Alan Turing was so much more.
Alan Turing recently resurfaced in the public spotlight due to a highly acclaimed film adaptation of his life, The Imitation Game, which I really enjoyed… until I read The Enigma and realized his life was so much bigger than manufactured Hollywood drama.
I actually don’t want to say more, knowing nothing about his life only makes the discovery of his accomplishments all the more profound.
5 comments
5 Comments so far
Interesting, I’ll be looking forward for this book. I recently watched Ex-Machina, your recommendation, and I really enjoyed, and they talk a lot about the Turing test. I also watched “The Imitation Game”, wich I think is a good movie, but just a little bit shallow, taking account of the real character.
Otavio: Alan is basically the father of Computer Science. While America and England were racing to build computers, Alan was writing “programs” and talking about teaching machines to think. All the ideas in Ex-Machina were because of Alan Turing.
The Imitation Game is a fun movie, but as a “biopic” it’s SHIT. 90% of it is fiction, ESPECIALLY the end.
As a Computer Science student, I’m really glad to see someone else has this opinion. While it’s exciting to see such an influential (but still relatively obscure) figure getting the representation he deserves, it was terribly disappointing that they did such a poor job representing him as a person.
Mack: I totally agree. After reading Turing’s biography, the end of the film actually makes me angry, it is such a disservice to his memory. Much of the film is a disservice, but the end is truly appalling.
Michael, thank you for the recommendation. I haven’t seen the movie yet, and might have missed reading the book had you not brought it to my attention. Now I’m anxious to get my hands on it.