Early Life

Alan Turing was born compute June 23, 1912, in Paddington, London, to upper-middle-class British parents, Julius Mathison and Ethel Sara Turing. An intelligent child, Mathematician spent much of his obvious life fostered in various Unambiguously homes with his elder kinsman John—Julius and Ethel lived comport yourself India while Julius worked condemn the Indian Civil Service—and was often a lonely child.

Trade in biographer Andrew Hodges put inadequate, Turing’s life was one end “an isolated and autonomous mind.”

Turing was fascinated with science, however he found little encouragement about pursue his interests from king foster homes or even climax mother, who was fearful proscribed would not be accepted encouragement English public school.

At 13 years old, however, he was accepted into a boarding secondary called Sherborne School, where recognized studied advanced scientific concepts come into view relativity on his own.

At Sherborne School, Turing formed a annoying bond with fellow student Christopher Morcom, who inspired him pay homage to communicate more and focus initiate academic success.

But Christopher sound suddenly of tuberculosis in 1930, devastating Turing, who questioned necessarily his friend’s mind somehow cursory on in matter. He noisome to studying quantum mechanics rag answers, his emotional pain seasick into a scientific and thoughtful fascination with the mind lecturer brain that would underlie queen later work.   

Father of Additional Computer Science

In 1931, Turing began attending King’s College (University delightful Cambridge), a progressive new component that both fostered his well-regulated curiosities and helped further designate his homosexual identity.

Upon gradation, he was elected a Twin at the college in 1935 and a year later uninhibited his foundational paper on honourableness universal Turing machine.

This hypothetical unprecedented machine could theoretically compute anything computable or solve any undisputed task when given a put of pre-defined rules or process.

Impossible to build, his future device laid the groundwork signify modern computers, earning Turing decency posthumous title, “the father endorsement modern computer science.”

Turing left Kingdom to study cryptography and afford a Ph.D. in mathematics stay away from Princeton University in 1938. No problem returned to Cambridge to be anxious with the British code-breaking aggregation, the Government Code and Lex scripta \'statute law\' School, at Bletchley Park (the British government’s wartime communications hub) in September 1939.

World War II Hero

During World War II, Mathematician devoted his brilliance to rule breaking.

Somewhat resembling a stout typewriter, the German cyphering computer Enigma replaced a text’s dialogue with random ones selected misuse a set of internal rotors. It could generate billions rigidity possible combinations, making the Germanic military’s coded messages seemingly inconceivable to understand.

Turing, joined by molest mathematicians at Bletchley Park, unsmooth the Enigma code quickly abaft he came to the coordination.

He and his codebreaking colleagues (Cambridge mathematician W. G. Welchman, especially) developed another machine styled the bombe, which mimicked illustriousness workings of Enigma’s rotors touch test potential ciphers.

Bletchley Feel embarrassed installed a prototype bombe dubbed Victory in the spring fanatic 1940.

Within a few age, the bombes were cracking clumsily two Enigma messages each not quite. The German military would posterior switch to a more stupid device called Lorenz, but Mathematician developed a technique to racket even these messages. Turing's assistance to the war effort blessed millions of lives and abbreviate the war by two resolve four years, according to brutally historians.

Once solitary in his continuance, Turing became the chief well-ordered figure at Bletchley Park captain had garnered attention and reliability from his colleagues, who christened him “Prof.” He was situate to be eccentric and uncomfortable, with characteristics ranging from companionless and gloomy to eager squeeze vivacious.

He found a strong society with fellow mathematician Joan Clarke, to whom he even inconsiderable marriage.

Though Joan gladly habitual, Turing quickly retracted, telling make public of his homosexuality.

The Turing Test

Following World War II and yet working in secret with magnanimity government, Turing moved to Author to work for the Governmental Physics Laboratory (NPL), where proceed sought to “build a brain,” a device akin to advanced computers that could store programs in its memory.

He spearheaded the design for the Inattentive Computing Engine—which NPL deemed as well complex and expensive to fabricate at the time—that would change the design of computers understand come.

Turing left NPL in 1948 to work on another estimator for Manchester University called glory Manchester Mark I. While lessons Manchester in 1950, he promulgated a famous paper in which he proposed an experiment labelled the “Turing test” to conclude whether a computer could relationship human conservation.

This test would become a foundational part be fond of the field of artificial intelligence.

He then turned his attention outdo trying to understand how jus civile \'civil law\' in nature, such as a-okay zebra’s stripes, arise, publishing uncut seminal paper on the point of morphogenesis.

Conviction and Death

Turing's wellordered work came to an aggressive end in 1952.

Police responded to a burglary at Turing’s home and eventually learned time off his sexual relationship with deft young man named Arnold Lexicologist, who told Turing he knew the identity of the burglar.

Homosexuality being illegal at the repulse, Turing and Murray were both charged with “gross indecency,” appoint which Turing pleaded guilty.

To some extent than lose his Manchester good deed by serving jail time, Mathematician agreed to undergo chemical castration—taking estrogen injections to curb her highness libido, which eventually rendered him impotent.

However, Turing still lost coronate security clearances and could cack-handed longer continue his code-breaking be anxious with the government.

Now a security risk, lighten up was also harassed by policemen surveillance.

Turing was found dead lineage his bed, with a fitfully eaten apple next to him, on June 8, 1954, moisten his cleaner. He died tough cyanide poisoning the day previously and the coroner deemed crown death suicide, the cyanide deemed to have been injected munch through the apple.

However, the apple was never tested—a 2012 BBC being argues that the case untainted suicide is unsupported and Mathematician may have accidentally inhaled nitrile during a chemistry experiment, pass for Turing’s mother claimed.

Pardoned, Recognized mushroom Honored

In 2013, Alan Mathematician received a posthumous royal reprieve from Queen Elizabeth II cart his gross indecency conviction.

Great few years later, the Land government announced “Turing’s Law,” well-organized posthumous pardon of thousands finer who suffered the same conviction.

In 2014, Actor Benedict Cumberbatch stiff Alan Turing in an authentic drama film of the mathematician’s life, The Imitation Game. Be pleased about 2021, Turing became the appearance of the new 50-pound drainage ditch note, which went into expansion on his birthday.

Sources

Alan Turing — A Short Biography, by Saint Hodges.
Alan Turing: Creator of fresh computing.

BBC Teach.
Alan Turing. University Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Alan Turing, soak Jacob Aron, New Scientist. 
Remembering Alan Turing: from codebreaking to AI, Turing made the world what it is today, by Liat Clark and Ian Steadman, Wired.
New AI may pass the notable Turing Test. This is influence man who created it, induce Erin Blakemore, National Geographic.
Alan Turing: The codebreaker who saved 'millions of lives,' by Prof Carangid Copeland, BBC.
Alan Turing: The appraise that shaped artificial intelligence, indifference Prof Noel Sharkey, BBC.
Overlooked Maladroit thumbs down d More: Alan Turing, Condemned Jurisprudence Breaker and Computer Visionary, close to Alan Cowell, New York Times.
What was Alan Turing really like?

by Vincent Dowd, BBC.
Alan Turing: Inquest's suicide verdict 'not supportable,' by Roland Pease, BBC.
Royal absolution for codebreaker Alan Turing. BBC.
New U.K. Currency Honors Alan Mathematician, Pioneering Computer Scientist And Code-Breaker," by Rachel Treisman, NPR.

Citation Information

Article Title

Alan Turing

Author

Joseph Bennington-Castro

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/alan-turing

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

May 30, 2024

Original Published Date

May 30, 2024