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Alan Turing, who cracked Enigma and was destroyed for who he was

Great lives

Alan Turing, who cracked Enigma and was destroyed for who he was

13 min

How the father of computing helped win the war, and what his own country did to him afterward.

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Show notes

Alan Turing’s nineteen thirty-six paper separated general hardware from specific software to create the first universal machine.

The Bombe machine used logical contradictions to crack one hundred fifty-eight quintillion possible Enigma settings.

Intelligence gathered at Bletchley Park shortened the second world war by two to four years.

Turing redefined intelligence as observable behavior through a thought experiment known as the Imitation Game.

Mathematical models of chemical diffusion explain how complex patterns like zebra stripes and leopard spots form.

The British government revoked Turing’s security clearance and forced him to undergo chemical castration in nineteen fifty-two.

In this episode

  1. 1Intro1 min
  2. 2The Universal Machine and the Enigma Problem2 min
  3. 3Victory and the Bombe4 min
  4. 4The Post-War Vision and the Turing Test3 min
  5. 5The Prosecution and the Apple3 min
  6. 6Outro1 min

Sources

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Alan Turing, who cracked Enigma and was destroyed for who he was — Fylom