Alan Turing
Early Life
Alan Mathison Turing was born on 23 June 1912, in Maida Vale, London, England. His parents, Julius Mathison Turing and Ethel Sara Stoney, were both of Anglo-Irish descent. His father worked in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in British India. Turing's family environment was often complicated due to his father's intermittent presence. His parents decided to raise their children in England, while his father continued his work in India. Turing displayed signs of high intelligence from an early age, which was recognized by his mother and his primary school teachers.
Education
Turing was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset. The headmaster recognized his academic prowess and encouraged him to pursue his interest in mathematics. In 1931, Turing won a scholarship to study at King's College, Cambridge, where he began to delve deeper into the world of mathematics and logic. In 1935, he obtained a first-class honours degree in mathematics. Turing was elected a Fellow of King's College in 1935, a testament to his exceptional academic performance.
The Turing Machine
During his time at King's College, Turing developed the concept of a universal machine that could compute anything that is computable. This theoretical machine, later known as the Turing machine, is considered a fundamental concept in the field of computer science today. The Turing machine was capable of simulating the logic of any computer algorithm, and it played a crucial role in the development of the theory of computation.
Cryptanalysis and World War II
In 1938, Turing began working part-time for the British cryptanalytic department, the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). When World War II broke out in 1939, he took up full-time work at its headquarters, Bletchley Park. Here, Turing played a pivotal role in deciphering the messages encrypted by the German Enigma machine, which provided vital intelligence for the Allies. He devised a number of techniques to speed up the breaking of German ciphers, including improvements to the pre-war Polish bombe method, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine.
Post-war Career and Contributions to Computer Science
After the war, Turing worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), where he designed the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE). The ACE was among the first designs for a stored-program computer, i.e., a computer that stores program instructions in electronic memory. Although the ACE was never built in its full form, the pilot model executed its first program on 10 May 1950, becoming one of the first functioning computers in the world.
In 1948, Turing joined Max Newman's Computing Machine Laboratory at the Victoria University of Manchester, where he assisted in the development of the Manchester computers. During this time, Turing continued to make significant contributions to the emerging field of artificial intelligence. He proposed an experiment now known as the Turing test, an attempt to define a standard for a machine to be called "intelligent". The idea was that a computer could be said to "think" if it could fool an interrogator into believing that the conversation was with a human.
Personal Life and Death
Turing was a private man who kept his personal life separate from his professional life. He was openly gay at a time when homosexual acts were illegal in the UK. In 1952, he was prosecuted for homosexual acts and accepted treatment with oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died on 7 June 1954, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death as suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning.
Legacy
Turing's work has had a significant impact on computer science, with the Turing machine being considered a foundational model of computation. In recognition of his contributions, the annual ACM A.M. Turing Award has been given since 1966 to individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of computing. Despite his tragic end, Turing's life and work continue to inspire and influence many, and his contributions to the field of computer science and his role in World War II have been widely acknowledged.