Alan Turing, a genius

or

You don't know me at all

As everyone knows, this year is the anniversary of Alan Turing's birth.  It's been hard to avoid the worldwide celebrations, the code-breaking competitions, the endless analysis of his life and achievements and a campaign for a full pardon.  Then again, it is possible that not everyone is reading the same websites as me!

e.g. of Turing machine, from my college notes, '92

Turing was first and foremost a mathematician, but like Newton before him, made significant breakthroughs in a number of different fields (did you know that Newton, apart from his three laws of motion, also contributed significantly to the development of calculus, wrote a teatise on Optics and still managed to find time to be master of the mint in the UK?).  Turing's greatest contribution was the Turing machine, a conceptual device (although it has since been created in lego) which tests where or not something is computables and was fundamental to the development of the computer.

He also set the standard for judging artificial intelligence - the Turing test, which states that if you cannot figure out whether you are having a conversation with a human or machine, the machine can be said to be intelligent.  I personally think he was slightly flawed in his philosophical approach to AI, but that's a subject for a whole different type of blog.

His other achievements include cracking the German Enigma code during the second world war and describing how patterns e.g. giraffe markings, occur in nature.  He also happened to be homosexual and was convicted for this offence which resulted in him being chemically castrated a few short years before he took his own life.  His alleged suicide was also a nod to Newton.  A half-eaten apple was found by his bedside, assumed to be contaminated with cyanide, a substance he was using in his experiments.

I recently read his biography, by his mother, written over fifty years ago and republished to mark the centenary of his birth.  What struck me was how clueless and shallow his mother was.  She said she knew him best as she was his mother, but she was largely absent from his life, living in India for much of the year while Alan and his brother remained in England.  She clearly did not understand him at all.  She was also very critical of his slovenly ways and lack of reform to society's norms.  He was unconventional, certainly, but seemed to get on well with people and was willing to help out others.  Also, some of his actions, which distressed the hoi polloi seem eminently sensible to me, such as wearing his gas mask outdoors during the war, to ward off hayfever.

Alan's brother adds his own chapter at the end of this edition.  He too seems to have little understanding of his brother and judges his homosexuality to be a psychological problem resulting from his upbringing and abandonment issues due to his parents' long absenses.  In one respect, this attitude was a product of the time it was written, but what it must have been like for Alan to have a brother who so disapproved of him!

It was an interesting book, by all means, but mainly because of the insights we gain into his mother and brother's psyche.  It goes to show that the people society judges you to be closest to really don't have a clue what you're about.

Anyway, if you haven't already, check Alan Turing out - a great man!

I recommend following @AlanTuringYear on twitter for all things Alan related