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50th anniversary of Alan Turing's death
Jun. 9th, 2004 12:12 pmAlan Turing was a mathematician who did seminal work in the foundation of computer science. He also helped win WWII by being chief technical authority on the British code cracking effort, which allowed Allied powers to read the Enigma-encrypted message traffic of the Nazi war machine. He was also one of the most famous victims of homophobia, having been hounded to his death by an ungrateful British government.
I highly recommend Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Not only is the subject a fascinating character, this biography is as gripping as any novel and manages to explain well why what he was working on was important and how tragic his loss was. The biography was the basis of a Broadway play and movie, both starring Derek Jacobi (of I, Claudius fame) which necessarily left out much of the interesting detail. When I saw the play in New York from about the 10th row, Mr. Jacobi, in his efforts to exaggerate the tics Turing was afflicted with, spit so much we could feel droplets from it all the way back there.
I highly recommend Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Not only is the subject a fascinating character, this biography is as gripping as any novel and manages to explain well why what he was working on was important and how tragic his loss was. The biography was the basis of a Broadway play and movie, both starring Derek Jacobi (of I, Claudius fame) which necessarily left out much of the interesting detail. When I saw the play in New York from about the 10th row, Mr. Jacobi, in his efforts to exaggerate the tics Turing was afflicted with, spit so much we could feel droplets from it all the way back there.
