Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges, Douglas Hofstadter
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Book Reviews of Alan Turing: The Enigma
Book Review: One of the most important books I've ever read
Summary: 5 Stars
Without this book, the real Alan Turing might fade into obscurity or at least the easy caricature of an eccentric British mathematician. And to the relief of many, because Turing was a difficult person: an unapologetic homosexual in post-victorian england; ground-breaking mathematician; utterly indifferent to social conventions; arrogantly original (working from first principles, ignoring precedents); with no respect for professional boundaries (a 'pure' mathematician who taught himself engineering and electronics).His best-known work is his 1936 'Computable Numbers' paper, defining a self-modifying, stored-program machine. He used these ideas to help build code-breaking methods and machinery at Bletchley Park, England's WWII electronic intelligence center. This work, much still classified today, led directly to the construction of the world's first stored-program, self-modifying computer, in 1948.
Computers were always symbol-manipulators, to Alan, not 'number crunchers', the predominant view even to von Neumann, and into the 60's and 70's. He designed many basic software concepts (interpreter, floating point), most of which were ignored (he wasn't exactly good at promoting his ideas). By 1948 Alan had moved on to studying human and machine intelligence, as a user of computers, again with his lack of social niceties and radical thinking, some of his ideas were baffling or embarrassing until 'rediscovered' decades later as brilliant insights into intelligence. His 'Turing test' of intelligence dates from this period, and is still widely misunderstood.
Poor Alan; his refusal to deceive himself or others and "go along" with the conventions of the time regarding sexuality caused him (and other homosexuals then) great problems; early Cold War England was not a good time to be gay, or a misfit, especially one with deep knowledge of war-time secrecy (he was technical crypto liason to the U.S., and one of the few with broad knowledge of operations at Bletchley, since he defined so much of it, in a time of extreme compartmentalization). His sexual escapades eventually got him in trouble, and his increasing isolation and the fact that he simply couldn't acknowledge some of his life's work due to secrecy, probably influenced his suicide at the age of 42.
I first discovered Turing-the-person in A HISTORY OF COMPUTING IN THE 20TH CENTURY (Metropolis, Howlett, Gian-Carlo Rota; Acedemic Press, 1980), where I.J. Good wrote, "we didn't know he was a homosexual until after the war... if the security people had found out [and removed him]... we might have lost the war". This led me to look for books on Turing, and then the Hodges book magically appeared on the shelf.
I am grateful that Hodges researched his life as well as his work, as far as the data allows. Knowing the whole is always important, but I think critical in Alan Turing's life. Clearly, I rate this one of the most important books I've ever read.
Book Review: The Classic Biography of the Computer's Progenitor
Summary: 5 Stars
It is a pleasure to see that the wonderful biography of Alan Turing by Andrew Hodges is once again available. With loving care, Hodges follows Turing's life from the clumsy child whose largely absentee parents were caught up in maintaining the British imperial presence in India, to the mathematically precocious adolescent facing teachers for whom mathematics imparted a bad smell to a room, finally coming into his own at Cambridge University where he wrote the paper that provided the conceptual underpinnings of the all-purpose computers we all use today. Hodges carefully explains Turing's crucial contributions to breaking the secret codes that the German military used all through the Second World War, confident in the security provided by their "Enigma" machines. Turing's highly successful war-time practical work known only to a few, his efforts after the war to enable the construction of a general purpose electronic computer were frustrated by bureaucratic mismanagement and by a lack of appreciation of the value of his ideas, many of which came to the fore much later. A burglary of his house that a prudent man would have kept to himself, led to Turing's homosexuality coming to official notice when he reported the crime to the police. He was prosecuted for "gross indecency" and sentenced to a course of injections of estrogen intended to diminish his sex drive. We will never know how much this barbaric treatment contributed to his suicide or what he might have accomplished had his life not been cut short. This is a book that will fascinate readers interested in the history of the computer, in the story of how the German submarine fleet threatening to strangle England was defeated, and in the tragic story of the persecution for his sex life of a man who should have been prized as a national hero.Book Review: Wonderful Histories
Summary: 5 Stars
Two books for the price of one.
The first is an excellent biography of Alan Turing and his contributions to number theory, computer science, cryptography, and World War II. He was an amazing man, although it's hard to escape the conclusion that his post-war years were nothing but a footnote to Bletchley.
The second is a frank history of homosexuality in the U.K. in the years immediately before and after the war. It's amazing how far we've come.
If there's a criticism of this book, it's that the author never really seems to connect the two themes. The only thing they have in common is Alan Turing; his homosexuality had no apparent influence on his mathematics, and his mathematics had no obvious impact on his sexuality. The whole gay side of Turing's life probably could have been left out of this work with little appreciable impact.
That minor exception aside, this is a beautiful work. I particularly appreciate Hodges's treatment of Turing's suicide; he doesn't blame it on the estrogen treatments, on British intelligence, on GCHQ security, or on the Freemasons. Turing simply killed himself for no apparent reason. (Why Douglas Hofstadter, who wrote the introduction to the book, blamed Turing's death on "a chemistry accident" is a mystery.)
Hodges is an elegant writer who should have taken up literature instead of mathematics.
Book Review: Too clever for his own good
Summary: 5 Stars
Alan Turing will never really be accepted as the genius that he was or as a cruel victim of state incompetence, betrayal and deceit. In a country that could be at ease with such curious oxymorons such as military music, common-wealth and unwritten constitution it is perhaps difficult to see why Alan Turing was not better appreciated and his vast talent not profitably used, both in times of war and, perhaps as importantly, in times of peace. The book itself should go down in history as a monumental mark of respect and admiration for one of Englands greatest scientific genius. It traces Alan Turing's life from end to end, covering all aspects of his life, his work and his person. It describes his greates contributions to the advancement of science as well as his open and unapologetic homosexuality.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, Alan Turing was one of the first victims of the "security state", an awful waste of fine talent and genius, very much the anglo-saxon way - too damn clever for his own good!
regards,
martyn_jones@iniciativas.com
Book Review: An even more beautiful mind
Summary: 5 Stars
Andrew Hodges writes an exquisite and richly detailed account of the life of Alan Turing. At long last, many of the disperate details of Turing's life and work are brought together seemlessly and the reader finishes the book with a more complete understanding of the accomplishments and challenges Turing faced. The contrast of Turing's life against the back-drop of early 20th century English society is fascinating, though at times quite painful to read. Turing is portrayed not as a freakish social misfit but as a multi-dimensional person with genius-like abilities. Turing was indeed an odd man, certainly an eccentric intellectual, but Hodges successfully portrays him as an anachronism, a man out of place in his time. That he ended up commiting suicide at a relatively young age punctuates the theme of adversity that define Turing's life.
A fascinating book which richly weaves the history of science, mathematics and English society through the 1920's, 30's and 40's.