Hodges shines the spotlight on Turing and the abstract mathematics that he brought to play in the task of deciphering the mechanics of the German encoding machine. Again, much has been written about the contributions of the team at Bletchley Park to the success of the Allied victory in World War II. I pondered the task of future biographers, who will lack print sources because so much communication today is oral or electronic.Īct Two is the war years. The quantity of available documents is, to a modern reader, astounding. At times I found this section of the book slow going because of the level of detail. One comes away from this part of the book with a sense that Turing was, in modern terms, the kid who exists on the fringe of the group, tolerated but never completely accepted. His failure to comprehend and adhere to expected social norms became visible but did not seem to cause insurmountable difficulties. A considerable literature exists that describes the public school experience in Britain in the twentieth century Turing’s time spent therein seems typical. The first act documents Turing’s childhood and school years. While the author divides the text into two parts, it actually reads like a play in four acts. Reading it is a melancholy experience, since you know from the outset that the ending is a tragic one and that knowledge overshadows you throughout. This book is an incredibly detailed and meticulously researched biography of Alan Turing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |