Pioneer of the Information Age

I finally finished “Turing – Pioneer of the Information Age” by Jack Copeland.

Making my way through the Turing books. I think after Andrew Hodges’ book this is the best known biography.

I really enjoyed reading this. I like the way the author writes and it is extremely readable! Great length chapters with clear stop and start points to each. I love that it focuses a lot on Turing’s work, often giving credit to him where it may have been misplaced over time (i loved sections that said “people may think the first time this was thought of was [insert event here] but really Turing had started it all off”…or something to that effect) which shows the true impact he had on our society and how amazing he really was.

Also it is clear that throughout the book information has been very well collected (it seems Copeland collected some of his information from friends of Turing that he got to speak to  back in the 90’s) and presented to give the important points. It never seems to go on and on or fly away on a tangent. Even when it the author tells us, as is often the case, how ideas that Turing started have developed in recent years or gives background to how things were working before Alan began to work on them. I found it all completely fascinating and Copeland makes all the maths and technical stuff really readable and easy to understand.

I especially loved reading about recent developments in artificial intelligence and the Turing test. Every thing i read adds a new layer to Turing’s brilliant brain showing he was so ahead of his time!

As much as this biography is quite work-centric, this is still entwined with aspects of Turing himself. What his friends thought of him or what he was like or particular memories people had of his attitude and personality, we still get to hear about the man behind the magic. There is, unfortunately, very very little about Turing as a young boy, which in Hodges’ biography i enjoyed immensely. There is no mention at any point of Christopher Morcom which is a shame but i don’t think it takes away from the book because these parts of his life are not the main focus.

There is, however, a chapter dedicated to the end of Turing’s life. I suppose Copeland wanted to try and push the range of views about his death. He seems to be quite skeptical of the suicide verdict in his writing. Although he never says it is definitely an incorrect verdict he seems to favour the argument that is was some kind of accident (a view which Turing’s mother held very strongly). I suppose there are many different opinions about and with so little inquest into the situation at the time there are things we will never know. But he does end with this wonderful quote:

“The exact circumstances of Turing’s death may always remain unclear… …Perhaps we should just shrug our shoulders, agree that the jury is out, and focus on Turing’s life and extraordinary work.”

I definitely recommend this book if you’re interested in Turing! I will certainly be reading other books from this author as i like the understandable yet detailed way in which he explains things, with a few fun pictures and diagrams to help at times too! I also enjoyed the quite linear fashion in which the book was written, so it is clear what happened when which i sometimes had trouble with in previous readings.