Alan Turing – The Enigma

Okay, it has taken me an embarrassingly long time but today I finally finished “Alan Turing – The Enigma” the biography by Andrew Hodges. What a journey!

The first thing you’ll no doubt notice is that this book I pretty long. It certainly is, and quite heavy on the detail! But hey, maybe that’s your thing. (If it’s not..do give it a chance..it’s not mine either).

I sort of had to think of it as one long continuous chapter, it is over 500 pages split into 6 chapters so they can feel pretty long if you’re trying to get to the end of one, and I also didn’t feel every chapter had an obvious stop and start point content wise. Not a complaint just an observation.

One thing I had to accept and get over pretty quickly was that there was no way I was going to understand everything that was talked about in this book. This niggles at my brain a bit because I like to understand what I’m reading about especially if it’s something I’m interested in but even as a maths graduate I knew I had no chance. I was quite reluctant to skim read though because I’d usually try that and suddenly find something interesting and have to go back to pay more attention to the context!

It was lovely to come across some familiar maths-y names and terms though, however traumatised their work or application may have left me after university. But don’t worry! I don’t think it gave me much of an advantage other than maybe better understanding a briefly mentioned mathematical method or piece of notation, but nothing you needed to know to understand about Turing.

Anyway, the book.

As I say, it’s pretty heavy on the detail but this is really fantastic for giving a wider context surrounding the range of events. It may feel a bit “going off on a tangent” at times but it always comes back to Turing, often with his place in or perception of what is being discussed. (It also helps a lot if you find a particular section interesting and want to find out more – lots of detail already there to grab hold of).

The book is so well researched! The ‘Author’s Note’ at the end gives some indication of the process of this but the attention to detail is clear throughout. You get such fine, intimate details that sometimes you wonder how we can know something so exact but the tone of the book makes you fully believe in its truth.

Andrew Hodges is certainly an ideal person to have written this book. As a fellow and tutor in mathematics at Oxford University (you can visit his website HERE) he is clearly very intelligent and has an amazing understanding of the work he is writing about, which I think I certainly needed in order to get it across as accurately and thoughtfully as he does.

This also allows Hodges to give a really useful sort of “outside observation” of what could have been implied by situations or what comments/letters were in reference to.

All of the snippet reviews on the back of this book describe it as “sympathetic” which now I come to think about it really is the best word to use. It gives us facts and events with a wholly rounded view from many different perspectives and takes into account possible emotions involved. As someone who has taken on trying to figure out Alan Turing’s character in as much detail as possible, the sort of “observer” comments given on how he could have felt about or perceived something seem honest and justified whilst by no means expressing them as fact.

It truly is a beautiful account of Turing’s life and work. I especially enjoyed the sections about Turing as a young boy, what a lovely little lad. I didn’t feel like I was reading a list of regurgitated facts about any old important historical figure from the bias of today’s knowledge and attitude, I felt I was gaining as close to a true understanding of this man as I could, with context reflecting the world and it’s changes over time.

In the end, Andrew Hodges can only find what the rest of us could if we looked hard enough. Backed up by the solid tone of open-mindedness, respect and empathy throughout, we can only trust that through his thorough research and hearing of personal accounts that his interpretation of character is, at least for now, as accurate and as much as we’ll get.

Anyone who says they know for sure what Alan Turing was like or why he did anything is wrong. Even history and those who knew him personally can only be so accurate. No one could have known him fully, especially considering the mysterious (or perhaps a better word is ‘internal’) way in which he kept some parts of his life – and rightly so. None of us share the entirety of our thoughts and feelings even with those closest to us.

So you may finish this book and, like me initially, selfishly wish there were more elements of closure. You may not feel as if you have a complete understanding of this man and his work, or his character or his motives, but you will have to be satisfied that it is possibly the best you’ll get, because let’s face it, the man and his super brain were pretty complicated. Besides, what you do get is pretty darn wonderful.

Alan Turing’s life remains, as this somewhat does, an open book and I think that’s perfect.

Alan Turing was not a fictional character, one whose entire story can be told in a book. He was real. A real person, who managed to be both ordinary and extraordinary and whose life, work and far too early loss have impacted the world deeply.

There is no “The End” here because his story is still going and – especially if I have anything to say about it – always will.

The Big Idea

Gosh i completely disappeared for a while there didn’t i? I keep meaning to write things and then i just..yeah…

We got a new trailer for The Imitation Game in the UK this week –> HERE 

Sigh…just a month or so to go until that one! But for now i’ve been very much delving into Turing’s life which is just amazing to read about. Currently reading “Andrew Hodges’ – Alan Turing – The Enigma” which i’ll talk to you about soon but before that, i wrote a review for a friend’s website but i hope…since i did write it…it’s okay for me to pop in here too!!

“The Big Idea – Turing & the Computer” – A Review

So with ‘The Imitation Game’ fast approaching I notice many (myself included) have started taking a much more detailed interest into Alan Turing and his life and work.

Now as much as I would highly recommend “Alan Turing – The Enigma” the biography by Andrew Hodges (which I am enjoying immensely!) I know that not everyone would say their interest/time allowance etc. reaches the point where they are willing to dig into this very detailed 500 page book.

Recently I came across “The Big Idea – Turing & the Computer” by Paul Strathern, a much smaller and much quicker read, so I thought I’d give it a go to see if I’d recommend it to anyone just wanting a bit of a brief overview.

To address the good points first – the book is a nice easy read, no crazy complicated science or maths and any that is brought up is well explained. Also it does have a nice little chapter at the start entitled “The BC Era” focusing on the development of the computer up until we reach Turing’s life. Now I can’t account for the accuracy of these facts personally but since the author has a series of these books (other’s including “Einstein & Relativity”, “Hawking & Black Holes”, “Newton & Gravity” etc.) I have no reason to believe any of this information is incorrect.

It might seem strange that I make that point but it’s because – when it comes to the details of Alan’s life it is all very brief (as is most of the book) but as far as I know the details given are fairly accurate – it is when we reach the explanations of his work that my main issue arises.

When reading the small introduction one comes across the phrase “Turing also worked on the Colossus calculating machine, which cracked the German Enigma codes during the Second World War.”

This is NOT true. (Although upon doing some research to write this piece I found there is varying degrees of confusion around this topic in general, so it’s not uncommon that a mistake like this is made)

Basically: (and do feel free to correct me here I’m going by what I’ve very quickly learnt)

• The Colossus was created by Tommy Flowers with input from others.
• It was used to decipher German codes but the “Lorenz Cipher” not Enigma.
• The machine Turing built to crack Enigma was called “The Bombe”
• Turing’s work on the Bombe and ideas around cryptanalysis did contribute to the design of the Colossus but he did not construct it.
• (Also, I believe the Key for the Enigma Machine (at least the one with 3 rotors) was changed once a day, not 3 times a day as this book implies)

This is where the book basically starts confusing itself.

The Bombe is not once mentioned throughout this book as the author clearly seems to have it confused with Colossus. This then means that facts about the Bombe and about the actual Colossus start interweaving with one another. For example, the statements telling us Colossus began operating in 1943 and used vacuum tubes computing in binary are correct, but in other places it uses Colossus where the Bombe is clearly meant.

However, the book does take the correct path on another common misconception when it states Colossus is regarded as the first computer, as this title is often given to the American “ENIAC” machine. This confusion was mainly due to the details of Colossus being kept secret until later in the 20^th century.

So due to this rather….colossal mistake (*smug face* pun intended) being made clear within the first 2 pages it lead to me reading the rest of the book with a small degree of scepticism about the reliability of the facts.

I don’t mean to make out this book is awful, it’s not, and I think if you keep this post in mind it’s a pretty decent way to go if you want a brief overview – though at some points, maybe you are best consulting the internet.

The amazon link to “The Big Idea – Turing & the Computer” is HERE (of course there are other places available along with your regional amazon stores)

The “Further Reading” recommended in this book includes:

• Andrew Hodges: Alan Turing: the enigma (I’ve just realised actually what is printed here is “Alan Hodges”…oh dear…this book is in some serious need of proof-reading)
• David Bolter (at least I hope that’s his name): Turing’s Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age
• Joel Shurkin: Engines of the Mind

Also! I’ve not read this myself yet but from talking to friends I’d also like to add – Jack Copeland:  Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age where I believe more information on Colossus is addressed.