| Alan Turing: The Enigma (1983) |
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| Table of Contents Foreword to the 2000 edition Douglas Hofstadter Preface to the 2000 edition PART ONE: THE LOGICAL Esprit de Corps to 13 February 1930 The Spirit of Truth to 14 April 1936 New Men to 3 September 1939 The Relay Race to 10 November 1942 Bridge Passage to 1 April 1943 PART TWO: THE PHYSICAL Running Up to 2 September 1945 Mercury Delayed to 2 October 1948 The Greenwood Tree to 7 February 1952 On the Beach to 7 June 1954 Postscript Author's Note from the 1983 Edition Notes Acknowledgments Index From Book News, Inc. Cited in Books for College Libraries, 3d ed. Hodges (mathematics, Wadham College, Oxford) examines both the heroic and tragic sides of Turing's life, from his decryption of the German U- boat Enigma cipher, to his tragic suicide (caused in part by his detection as a homosexual and subsequent mandatory hormone therapy to suppress his libido).Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR Book Description Alan Turing (1912 - 1954) was a British mathematician who made history: His breaking of the German U-boat Enigma cipher in World War II ensured Allied-American control of the Atlantic. But Turing's vision went far beyond the desperate wartime struggle. Already in the 1930s he had defined the concept of the universal machine, which underpins the computer revolution. In 1945 he was a pioneer of electronic computer design. But Turing's true goal was the scientific understanding of the mind, brought out in the drama and wit of the famous "Turing test" for machine intelligence, and his prophecy for the twenty-first century. Drawn into the cockpit of world events and the forefront of technological innovation, Alan Turing was also an innocent and unpretentious gay man trying to live in a society that criminalized him. In 1952, he revealed his homosexuality and was forced to participate in a humiliating treatment program, and was ever after regarded as a security risk. His suicide in 1954 remains one of the many enigmas in an astonishing life story. "As vivid a picture as one could hope for a most complex and intriguing man," says Douglas Hofstadter, author of Gdel, Escher, Bach. Both a compelling narrative and a work of scholarship, Alan Turing: The Enigma is the definitive biography of one of the greatest minds of the modern world. |
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| Original Details | |
| Original Publisher | Simon & Shuster |
| Original Publication Year | 1983 |
| Notes |
| Previously published: New York : Simon and Schuster, 1983. With new introd. Includes bibliographical references and index. |