“Code-Breaker” by Jim Holt is an incredible story of the life and achievements of the great Alan Turning. Holt (2008) describes the many secrets of his life, including his homosexuality; his breaking of the German Enigma code during WWII and creating a machine that would eventually evolve into the modern computer (p.337). I found it so interesting that a man with such unique achievements, only got the recognition he deserved in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, long after his death in 1954. I personally was unaware of Turing and his achievement until this reading. Now I find it hard to believe that someone of this modern, technological age wouldn’t know him!
Holt does an impressive job of informing the unaware readers like myself, with great depth and description, of his life and journey from university to the invention of the legendary Turing machine, to his time at Bletchley Park where he worked on cracking the Enigma code. “Turning set about devising a machine that would automate the search for logical consistency, eliminating contradictory chains rapidly enough for the codebreakers to deduce that day’s Enigma settings before the intelligence became stale” (Holt, 2008, p.342). It’s descriptions like this, as well as Holt’s (2008) use of imagery - such as referring to this machine as the size of several refrigerators and resembling a Fair Isle sweater with its coils of colourful wiring – that bring this story to life in the minds of the readers (p.342).
Besides recognizing Turing for his incredible achievements during his life, Holt achieves his purpose of also showing the readers an inside look of the person behind these achievements. Who was Alan Turpin? What was he like? Holt (2008) supported these questions by providing the reader little tidbits of information regarding Turing and his quirky personality, such as how he used to chain his tea mug to the radiator to ensure no one took it, and how he wore a gas mask while riding his bicycle to work (p.342). It’s these examples of his personality that create pathos and trigger an emotional response when reading about Turing’s conviction of “gross indecency” for having an affair with a man, the horrible hormonal treatment as a condition of his probation, and more than a year later, his death: ruled suicide (Holt, 2008, p. 345). It was his suicide in 1954 that started off Holt’s story and it was there that the story ended. It was a most curious death, as Turing was known for his love of the Disney animation “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Holt, 2008, p. 339). Found beside his body, was an apple with a few bites missing, apparently laced with cyanide (Holt, 2008, p. 337). Was this indeed a suicide? Or was this a brilliant murder? Whatever the intention, this was Alan Turing’s fairy tale ending.
There is a hypothesis regarding the logo of Apple Computers being influenced by Turing and his death. The logo was apparently created to represent knowledge, similar to Newton discovering gravity when an apple fell on his head. Do you think the creators of this logo were aware of the similarities to Turing’s cause of death? Is this a tribute hidden under the other concrete reasons for the logo?
I am absolutely sure that the Apple creators were aware of the circumstances of Turing's death. Turing is a well known participant in the origination of computers. As a former Computer Science student, having only taken a few courses, I learned about him to some extent. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the creators of Apple would have studied him in great detail, at their level. I do beleive that it was a nod to Turing, as well as to Sir Isaac Newton!
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