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Alan Turing: The Enigma

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About this listen

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.

©2014 Andrew Hodges (P)2024 W.F. Howes Ltd History History & Culture Mathematics Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Computer Science Artificial Intelligence U-Boat War Submarine
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sounds like it was written by a Victorians the flowery language is absurd. his father didn't move into a house he 'took a house' normal people just don't talk like that. and he ascribes feelings and opinions to Turing that have no sources to back them up. he's writing about someone he wanted Turing to be rather than who he was.

flowery language

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A troubled and quite brilliant man to whom many owe their lives and who was treated so cruelly by the state he served so capably.

Fascinating biography

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I bought this because the movie "Initation Game" was based on the book. Gave up half way through, too much about maths and ancient mathematicians. That's 8 hours of my life I won't get back.

truly dreadful,

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