Alan Turing’s Enigma
- aarna.g22
- Sep 18, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 21, 2020
As a British mathematician well versed in the fields of logic, physics, cryptanalysis, mathematical biology, and even artificial intelligence/life, describing Alan Turing as one of the most brilliant men in STEM is an understatement; he’s even considered the creator of computer science!
On June 23, 1912 in London, Alan Turing was born into a loving and financially stable family. As a child, he was sent to private school. Surprisingly, the boy who would eventually grow to be an extremely clever man was difficult at school. His teachers were constantly frustrated by his work, for he would get exemplary grades without paying attention in class. Turing’s speech impediment made things tougher for him, but all his teachers noticed his brilliance. He was a genius from the start. Growing up, Turing was always seen with another boy, Christopher Morcom. They would spend everyday together, forming a “unique” relationship. Morcom unexpectedly passed away when Turing was just eighteen. Devastated, he tried to bury himself in his work.
During the early twentieth century, the main field for a well rounded man like Turing to go into was literature, but he was a scientist at heart. Infatuated with nature, and the way the world worked, Turing was not like the other boys. Turing attended King's College Cambridge, where he excelled, and graduated with flying colours as well as a fellowship. After Cambridge, Turing's attentions turned towards the new field of computing, which was a completely revolutionary concept for the scientific establishment of the era. It has heavily impacted modern theoretical computer science. He and his colleagues created the first computer in 1936-- the Turing Machine-- leading the way for technological advancements to come.A year passed after he came back from King’s College, and in 1939, war had begun in Germany. At this time, Poland fed Britain and France the intricacies of the Enigma machine. The Enigma was an extremely complicated contraption used by Germany to conceal their data sent by radio. In an effort to find young and talented mathematicians, the British government recruited Turing and a number of other highly intelligent mathematicians and code breakers to work for the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park. Turing was one of these recruits. There, he and a mathematician named Gordon Welchman formed the driving force towards deciphering the enigma code. It was one of the most crucial ways that lead to the Allied victory in World War II.
They began working at the end of 1939, and the process was grueling. It took dozens of trials, but Turing, with the help of Welchman, created Bombe, which could decipher the German messages that were shielded by the Enigma. This was no small feat. Later records have showed that Turing could have saved fourteen million souls with his work. A year later, Turing and the Hut 8 team decoded German naval messages,
which ultimately resulted in their victory at the Battle of the Atlantic. Turing formed a relationship with one particular member of Hut 8-- Joan Clarke. She was a mathematician too, and they got engaged in 1941. But it didn’t last very long, for Turing revealed his deepest secret to her. He was gay.
Clarke, who had felt something off with the relationship for a while, understood. She was worried, however, since homosexuality was illegal in Britain at the time. Only Turing’s closest, most trusted friends knew of his sexuality, so he thought of himself to be safe. Clarke went on to marry a John Murray.
Turing’s work didn’t stop after the Bombe, for the enemy had created yet another way to keep their messages safe-- the Geheimschreiber. For this, Turing invented the Turingery to reveal the German data. Succeeding the war, he went on to accomplish amazing things. Due to his work in WWII, Turing was presented with the Order of the British Empire in 1945. He wrote a piece about artificial intelligence, in which he discussed his Turing Test, a process to see whether or not a machine can really be deemed intelligent by basically matching up to the levels of human intelligence.
In 1952, it was revealed that Alan Turing was in a relationship with another man: Arthur Murray. He was charged with indecency and was accused with homosexual activity. To get out of life in prison, Turing chose to go through chemical castration, which was the government’s attempt at “fixing” homosexual people, as they believed being queer was a mental illenss that could be cured. He had to take estrogen pills, leaving him impotent, and additionally caused other changes in his body (he grew breasts). He fell into a deep depression. His mind and body were being warped, and people were outwardly disgusted by him. He lived the last two years of his life in despair.
Tragedy struck on June 7, 1954. When Turing bit into an apple, which was administered with cyanide, he died. He was nearly two weeks from turning forty-two. There have been many disputes over whether his death was a suicide, murder, or accidental, but we know one thing for sure. The world had lost a beautiful person far too early. He and his achievements were only truly appreciated long after his passing, and his work in computer science has resulted in the yearly “Turing Award.” The Alan Turing Institute was built in his namesake, an establishment for data analysis and AI research. It took fifty-nine years of excuses and beating around the bush from the government in order for the Queen to pardon Turing of all charges. But Turing should not have been “pardoned” in the first place, for he was attacked for being who he was. Thousands of other men have been in a similar place as him. Alan Turing is the symbol for these men; he was an ingenious man who saved the lives of millions of people during the Second World War, and happened to be gay. He will remain a hero to thousands of queer children, interested in science and mathematics, proving to them that their sexuality does not define who they are-- it only makes them braver.
SOURCES:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/8-things-didnt-know-alan-turing
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/alan-turings-body/282641/
The Imitation Game. Morten Tyldum. Black Bear Pictures, Bristol Automotive, Orange Corp. 2014.
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