No secret is safe
The father of modern day computing, the man who cracked the Nazi enigma code,the pioneer of artificial intelligence, and the hero who was rejected by his country. Alan Turing was a genius in every sense of the word. He was a brilliant logician, mathematician and computer scientist.
Born June 23, 1912 to a middle class family in England, Alan Turing always showed promise in the field of mathematics. He reportedly was always working on rudimentary chemistry projects and studying mathematics.
After attending college in the field of science Alan would go on to work for the British government in the 1940’s. Now if you aren’t familiar with this time period in Britain, let’s just say it was less than enjoyable. During WW2 the German military was able to send encrypted messages to each other that the allies would not be able to understand. The “Enigma Code” was, at the time, known as the “unbreakable code”. It was a way where German officers could type a regular message, and then using many algorithms could hide the message in plain sight.
Alan created a machine that could crack this “Unbreakable” code and normal decryption began in 1941. Many people believe that Turing was one of the key people responsible for winning WW2 due to this revolutionary machine he created. He was celebrated as a genius in England and by the allies as he may have turned the war in their favor.
Explaining how the Enigma Code works can be a challenge so check out this link if you would like to learn how complicated the encryption was and to understand how awesome it was that our boy Alan cracked it. We use similar methods that Alan used today when cracking the encryption within messages on our computers but he did it in 1941!
The Enigma Code: https://privacycanada.net/history/the-enigma-machine/
Alan Turing was also the first person to theorize about a computer using electrical power rather than mechanical. He dreamed of utilizing the speed of electricity in his machines (This turned out to be a great idea if you are reading this right now.)
He also was the first to really think about artificial intelligence. He reasoned that computers think and learn as people do. He would be very involved in debates on the topic and sometimes he spoke of the future as if he lived in 2020.
“I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”
Alan Turing speaking on AI
Looking at you Siri.
The great Alan Turing, no matter how much of his life he gave for humanity and his country, soon was met with a gloomy ending in 1952. You see, Alan Turing was an openly gay man in England in the first half of the 1900’s. Even though he was a hero, he was arrested for “Gross Indecency” when he was found to have a relationship with a 19 year old man. At the trial he never defended nor denied his actions, only saying he did nothing wrong.
The British government decided to strip him of his access to government sites as gay people were not allowed access. This means that all his research he was working on was locked behind the walls of a facility that he would never be able to go to again.
Alan Turing took his own life in 1952 by ingesting cyanide.
Alan is a man that saved his country and then was rejected by them. Who created the concept of digital computers and artificial intelligence. He was a gay icon that lived knowing he could be murdered or imprisoned but decided not to change. Alan Turing was a damn badass.