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programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
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Charles Petzold was kind enough to send me a copy of his new book, The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine.
One look at the original title page of Turing's paper is enough to convince me that we're fortunate to have a guide as distinguished and patient as Charles. You know you're in trouble when the very first page opens with "Entscheidungsproblem".
The computer you're using to read this post is based on the mathematical model laid out in that thirty-six page 1936 paper. As are all other computers in the world. The terms Turing Machine and Turing Complete are both derived from that one historic paper.
Needless to say, we owe Alan Turing a lot.
Not only is Alan Turing the father of all modern computer science, he also was the single individual most responsible for breaking the Enigma code during World War II, and he laid the foundation for artificial intelligence by posing the Turing Test in 1950.
Unfortunately, Alan Turing was also terribly persecuted for the "crime" of being a homosexual. He was arrested in 1952 for having sex with another man. It pains me greatly to read about the degrading and inhumane treatment one of our greatest scientific minds was subjected to. Alan Turing ultimately committed suicide not long afterwards at the age of 42.
The "nobel prize of computing" was founded in Turing's name in 1966. Reading the list of Turing Award recipients is humbling indeed, a reminder of not only how far we've come, but how far we have to go.
The Alan Turing Memorial, erected in 2001, bears this Bertrand Russell quote:
Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty -- a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.
You'll note that the statue depicts Turing holding an apple in his right hand, a reference to the way he chose to end his life -- by eating a cyanide-laced apple. That was Turing's last message to the world, with clear parallels not only to the legendary scientific knowledge of Isaac Newton, but also the biblical interpretation of forbidden love.
Petzold's Annotated Turing is a gripping testament to the amazing mind of Alan Turing. Writing the book was a nine year labor of love, and it shows. It may be his shortest book -- but it could also be his best yet.
zomg first
keeb on July 1, 2008 9:51 AMDon't forget Von Neuman. While we owe a lot to Turing, we actually program against Von Neuman machines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neuman
He was also one of the original people involved in Game Theory if my memory serves me right.
Wow just reading the wikipedia page on him shows how awesome a mind he was. Cellular Automata, Game Theory, Manhattan Project and the list goes on.
Tim Yen on July 1, 2008 9:55 AMWhy does it seem that so many of the greatest minds of history always have to meet a bitter end, only to be truly honored post-mortem?
Alan Turing, I salute you. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to develop my passion for computer science. Instead, I'd be spending my days... I dunno, counting beans, or whatever it is that non-computer science people do.
Rainault on July 1, 2008 9:57 AMWell-written as always, Jeff. I was surprised to hear the name Charles Petzold in conjunction with Turing but I should've known. I've gotten a ton of use out of Petzold's Windows books and will probably pick this one up in due time.
Hey, and speaking of Turing tests, is CAPTCHA still dead (long live the CAPTCHA?)
www.codingthewheel.com on July 1, 2008 10:29 AM@Rainault
Alan Turing contributed to computer science in a great way.
But passion for computer science is different from passion for computers. The former tells about theory while the later involves hardware/software.
I think the Theory is far more better than the hardware/software. It is far more involving. It is far more powerful, and more beautiful.
Never knew about his death before. Poetic, and so sad.
Matt on July 1, 2008 10:31 AMI'm a huge Turing fan. Unfortunately, his behavior-centric Turing Test has misguided a generation of AI researchers into attempting to reverse-engineer intelligence rather than understand the nature of intelligence at a biological level.
Rip Rowan on July 1, 2008 10:39 AMI didn't realize this, but apparently the Turing book is a de-facto sequel to Petzold's Code ..
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2007/03/280150.html
.. which I loved:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000761.html
Jeff Atwood on July 1, 2008 10:45 AMSometimes it's simply annoying to see this kind of idol worshiping. Sure they made great contributions to the humanity but why should we make gods out of them constantly?
dt on July 1, 2008 11:53 AMI really don't have sympathy for how his life ended... at least he got the chance to choose, which further disturbs me - if he's of such a great intellect, why off yourself? It would seem obvious that someone of that intellectual caliber would do the opposite of what he did; to further his studies through an extended-lifelong journey of professing the beauty of computing science... live to see new and radical advances in the technology you love. But we'll never really know how that would've turned out or what he would've accomplished.
Patrick on July 1, 2008 12:12 PMif he's of such a great intellect, why off yourself?
Did you read what exactly happened to him?
http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2008/06/Gay-Rights-and-the-Prosecution-of-Alan-Turing.html
I'm not saying suicide is ever the right choice, but what Petzold describes there is horrifying. (As is the first comment to that post, but that's a different topic, sadly..)
why should we make gods out of them constantly?
Where are we doing that? All I want to do is learn from Turing in some small way, and Petzold's book is a fine way to do that.
Jeff Atwood on July 1, 2008 12:23 PMThe documentary...
http://bestdocumentaries.blogspot.com/2007/09/dangerous-knowledge-full-documentary.html
...is an interesting look at the life of Turing, as well as other influential mathematicians, giving context to the work he did.
Mike on July 1, 2008 12:24 PMPatrick, i don't suppose you were a homosexual in those days?... And honoring != deifying.
And don't forget the one, who built the first Turing Complete computer:
Konrad Zuse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse)
Jeff,
Did you read the book? What did you think of the book? Neither of these things were mentioned in the post.
Is there a link with the Apple logo and the apple Turing ate?
rjan on July 1, 2008 12:51 PM1 - Wikipedia lists some doubts about whether his death was a suicide:
Most believe that his death was intentional, and the death was ruled a suicide. His mother, however, strenuously argued that the ingestion was accidental due to his careless storage of laboratory chemicals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
2 - The Apple logo has nothing to do with Alan Turing, that is urban legend:
a curious urban legend exists that the bitten apple is a homage to the mathematician Alan Turing,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#Advertising
I did a report on Turing in college and outlined all of the crazy stuff involved with his homosexuality. His arrest was very controversial, because In England the laws against buggery (having sex you know where) went in and out of activity. Unfortunately for Turing he got caught doing it while it was in activity, so they put him on hormones which caused him to develop breasts!
Why does it seem that so many of the greatest minds of history always have to meet a bitter end, only to be truly honored post-mortem?
Many of them have Asperger's Syndrome, difficult people to deal with.
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/spec/CE96C5C608138FABCC25747000784BD0
IMO, Alan Turing is not the father of modern computing science. That role goes to Alonzo Church - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonzo_Church.
leppie on July 2, 2008 2:43 AMHe sounds intriguingly quirky as well. A few years back I visited the museum at Bletchley Park, which is well worth doing if you are interested in the field- some of the guides are people who worked there during the war so you get first-hand accounts of how they operated.
I told my granny about the visit a little while later and she said oh yes, Alan Turing, a very nice man. It turns out his father was a family friend. Small world.
Breakfast on July 2, 2008 2:54 AMThere was a good biopic of him played by Derek Jacobi (Breaking the Code)
djamanning on July 2, 2008 3:05 AMThanks for this great post.
LKM on July 2, 2008 3:07 AMThe work he was starting to do on morphogenesis (how multicellular organisms form complex shapes) is also pretty interesting.
http://www.swintons.net/jonathan/Turing/turbox.htm
http://www.sfu.ca/~cjenning/toybox/turingmorph/index.html
Paul Harrison on July 2, 2008 3:15 AMYes, it seems there is a link between Turing's apple and the Apple Inc. Logo :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#Advertising
Jrme Radix on July 2, 2008 3:15 AMHistory has brought us many people which we describe as geniuses. It's very difficult to say who is the most important one. In fact it's impossible. From Ada Lovelace to the people writing the history of tomorrow right now, they all deserve our deepest adoration.
But I guess people need some kind of idols. And that's okay. Because praising a person more than others does not necessarily diminish their works. I for my part go with Julien Grenier a few posts earlier and his vote for Dijkstra.
wh on July 2, 2008 3:25 AMTuring designed the computer, and Tommy Flowers built it. Given the reliability and availabiity of the technology back then, I think that is just as impressive a feat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Flowers
I remember reading somewhere that Turing was very enamoured of the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and his eating of a poisoned apple may have been inspired by his attachment to the story. Anyone else see this reference anywhere? Can't remember where I saw this now.
rwinston on July 2, 2008 4:03 AMA nod to Snow White and Socrates in the manner of his death, no?
And it's 'von Neumann', not 'von Neuman'.
Perhaps he is liking apples because they are healthy
Pardeep on July 2, 2008 4:09 AMI guess it’s probably fitting that so many computers have been used to tell strangers “Haha u r so gay”.
Anyhoo, Ada Lovelace FTW. She was programming before Turing was born.
Paul D. Waite on July 2, 2008 4:27 AMI sometimes wonder why some genius leave so soon... If Ramanujan hadn't died at age 33, who knows what kind of revolutionary theory he would have found.
Then again, Einstein had published all of his most famous papers by the age of 38. Not to belittle his later achievements, but it’s pretty common to see people have peak achievements long before the end of their lives.
Paul D. Waite on July 2, 2008 4:32 AMWhile I admire Petzold's credentials as a writer, what I haven't quite been able to determine is why a new book on Turing's work on the Entschiedungsproblem is called for. Other books exist; for example Jack Copeland's scholarly and comprehensive treatment of all of Turing's work.
However, anything that introduces more people to his work can't be bad. Far too few seem to appreciate just how powerful and important a result the negative proof of Hilbert's decision problem really is - it speaks deeply about what computers can actually do, even removed of practical considerations. The idea that there are some problems that are just unsolvable has significant ramifications for pretty much every area of computer science, and a fair chunk of mathematics as well.
Happily, Alan Turing not only came from my home town, but my favourite football team's stadium is on Alan Turing Way. I get to honour him at least once a week :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_manchester_stadium
He was an accomplished marathon runner as well if memory serves.
An odd application of the Biblical fruit of the tree of knowledge to romantic love. Was the application Turing's, Petzold's, or Atwood's?
I've heard contrary evidence about the connection with the Apple logo. It's worth your owm Google search...
David Saff on July 2, 2008 4:51 AMI really don't have sympathy for how his life ended... at least he got the chance to choose, which further disturbs me - if he's of such a great intellect, why off yourself? - Erm, did you read the mechanism of 'treatment'? It effectively amounted to human experimentation. If a developed nation did anything vaguely similar today there'd be uproar. IMO, he took the sensible route.
Robert Synnott on July 2, 2008 5:02 AMThe story of the Enigma is a long tale, that did start with the Polish as Jakub mentions, but there was no one person (or group of people) who solved the Enigma. Enigma by Hugh Sebag Montefiore is essential reading if you want to know more about the various types of enigma and how each was broken by the allies.
Meanwhile a few pictures of Bletchley Park can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotrods/sets/72157603884462565/
Well worth a visit.
Mark on July 2, 2008 5:29 AMIn the university I went to there were three on campus restaurants, Newton, Edison and Zip. Newton in the building with mechanics related departments. Edison with the electrical engineering departments. And Zip in the computer science building. Would it really have been too obscure to name it Turing or anyone else famous in the field?
Its a shame how we and the general public lack all sense of history of computer science. All we do is point and laugh at obsolete computes, when we could learn just how old our supposedly new ideas are.
Case in point, here's a guy who programmed robots with rope assembler circa 10 – 70 AD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron_of_Alexandria
Jeff and Robert,
Trust that I do have sympathy for his tribulations - no one should ever have to suffer what he did(or worse) for what or who they are. At the risk of repeating what that first poster said, ultimately Turing broke a law. No matter how much we disagree with a law, we don't have the right to break them. Laws are in place for a reason - no matter how crazy they appear at the time. Suicide is the selfish way to go and I highly disagree that it was sensible. In my opinion, he should have done what he could to push his views forward and push for legislation, which is what we do when we don't agree with a law... but maybe that's a naive view of the system considering how hush-hush homosexuality was during this time. He chose treatment over a two year sentence; once again he got a choice.
Why not push for others who were like him, organize and protest for rights? This appears to be the logical route. How great would his story have been if he had suffered what he did, only to have the beliefs of that time reversed years later by his efforts? Turing, the Father of Computer Science, sufferer of human experimentation, challenger of popular belief - leads to acceptance... Instead, we're left with a great scientist that killed himself. :(
Turing was obviously crucial to the field, if only for the Turing Test. I for another, vote for Lovelace and Babbage's contributions. Cheers.
Patrick on July 2, 2008 5:47 AMNobody should be harrased because of their sexual orientation. It's like killing people because of their religion... :@
Nicols Miyasato on July 2, 2008 5:51 AMCould this be the most devoid of content article you've ever written Jeff?
I don't want to be a hater or anything but the prominent picture of the book promises a review. Yet your post is all about Turing and nothing about the text.
Why should I buy this book? What makes it so great?
As one poster asks above, did you even read it?
I am for gay marriage, as long as both chicks are hot.
Shambo on July 2, 2008 5:59 AMTuring was awesome, but everyone knows it's Lawrence Waterhouse who really won the crypto side of the war! :-)
Rwinston
I read the same thing about Turing adoring Snow White tale in Simon Singh's book L'Histoire des codes secrets (in french ; I think english title is The Science of Secrecy).
Michael on July 2, 2008 6:00 AMTo those interested in all aspects of Turing's life and work, I recommend the Alan Hodges biography: http://www.turing.org.uk/book/
Dave on July 2, 2008 6:25 AMEnigma was broken first by the Polish ...
Pah. Don't you know anything? It was, naturally, captured and broken by the Americans (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141926/) even before they had entered the war.
:-)
Don't let the long German words scare you. They're always taking long phrases and putting them together into single words. Like massenvernichtungswaffen, for instance. We call them WMD.
jgr4 on July 2, 2008 6:34 AMsingle individual most responsible for breaking the Enigma code during World War II,
Unfortunetly it isn't true. First decription made polish scientist: Marian Rejewski, Jerzy R#380;ycki and Henryk Zygalski. I suggest you to read more about that ;)
milosh on July 2, 2008 6:41 AMThe computer you're using to read this post is based on the mathematical model laid out in that thirty-six page 1936 paper. As are all other computers in the world.
It is hard to prove ALL computers in the world are based on Turing machines, as there are other models for universal computation, but I can understand the over-simplification.
Diogo on July 2, 2008 6:42 AMWell It was not Turing who broke enigma!!!
It was Marian Rejewski, Jerzy R#380;ycki and Henryk Zygalski who broke it in 1932.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
vonG on July 2, 2008 7:24 AMGood one, Jeff. I am saddened to see Mr. Turing died in such degrading circumstances.
Elvis Montero on July 2, 2008 7:33 AMNeat. Thanks for this. I may pick up the book and give it a read. I somehow missed the memo on Turing's suicide, having never really looked into his actual life before (and none of my CS classes/profs had even a sentence about it).
Dave Feltenberger on July 2, 2008 7:40 AMAlan Turing is one of my personal heroes. I've already read a few books about him, but I think I may pick this one up after work.
It's amazing that he did so much in his life and died so young.
RE: someone else breaking ENIGMA: My understanding is that, although other people laid the theoretical foundation for breaking ENIGMA, it was Turing's group of mathematicians that actually made it happen. So, saying that someone else broke ENIGMA is a bit like saying that Turing invented software.
Evan on July 2, 2008 7:42 AMTuring's life story really is a coding horror.
catfood on July 2, 2008 7:49 AMWhy should I buy this book? What makes it so great?
The subject matter!
But yes, I could have written about the layout, Petzold's writing/research, etc. You'll just have to trust me, I suppose: all top notch.
Still -- you have to have some interest in the subject before we even begin.
Jeff Atwood on July 2, 2008 7:50 AMThis was a shock to me. They don't tell you this stuff at the university.
The Poles were indeed able to break early versions of Enigma (using three wheels), very slowly. This version was used by railways and similar. Turing et al expanded it to the more complex Navy/Air Force/Espionage version, and built machines to break it quickly.
Robert Synnott on July 2, 2008 7:52 AMHis story is both inspiring and depressing at the same time.
nagnatron on July 2, 2008 7:56 AMEvan, your understanding is wrong. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Rejewski
desp on July 2, 2008 8:12 AMHey, Jeff, you should check out Claude E. Shannon's work(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_E._Shannon). He formulated the incredibly brilliant Information Theory(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory), which enabled the creation of several things, like say... the internet, cellphones, quantum computing, black hole research... etc.
As well, his Master's thesis was about constructing electronic circuits that were boolean algebraic constructs... basically, he's the guy that inspired people to build electronic computers. I'd say this guy is the real progenitor of our modern computing era. :D
Zeroth on July 2, 2008 8:19 AMGreat post. Turing should be viewed in context of Von Neumann, Konrad Zuse and people who designed the Enigma crypto-machine. It is sad to be reminded that Turing's self-esteem was so low that he saw no exit but to kill himself, at the time when he was celebrated as a genius. It tells you a few things about so-called social norms and dumbed-down users.
BugFree on July 2, 2008 8:26 AMI rather like the Apple logo theory, even if it is an urban legend.
Cryptonomicon is the first I'd ever even heard of Turing's preference for men. Standard blurbs don't hint at it at all. And thank goodness - for my sake - we've gone beyond chemical castration - at least, in most of the world. In many parts of the world gay rights is still a pipe dream.
Rhywun on July 2, 2008 8:31 AMMore on Arthur Scherbius, designer of Enigma:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Scherbius
BugFree on July 2, 2008 8:32 AMMore on Turing and inside story of Bletchley Park:
BugFree on July 2, 2008 8:33 AM@Tim Yen: Von Neuman was a fan of Turing's work, and references are cited in the book to show that what we think of as his architecture is really adapted from Turing's work. The interesting point to note, is the paper in which the book and all of this is based on was not set out to design a computer - that is only a side effect. The creation of the programmable computer was merely a needed step to prove there is no solution to the Entscheidung's Problem.
(the reason that's reverent to us today is it also means we'll never have a generic process that can prove our code works - i.e. the One True Unit Test is a mythical creature)
Michael C. Neel on July 2, 2008 8:34 AMBreaking of Enigma was also used to shift the discovery to the British, although British researchers were jumpstarted by their colleagues in Poland:
http://www.amazon.com/Enigma-German-Machine-Foreign-intelligence/dp/0890935475
BugFree on July 2, 2008 8:36 AMApples already have cyanide in their seeds...
DanaL on July 2, 2008 8:38 AMDamn you Jeff. Every time I think about what we owe that man, and how he was rewarded, I'm pissed off for days. You just *had* to go remind me. I had work I wanted to get done today too...
T.E.D. on July 2, 2008 8:53 AMThe English title of Simon Singh's book is The Code Book: http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Code_Book.html - highly recommended, btw. It features a potted biography of Turing, including the Snow White story.
jim on July 2, 2008 8:59 AMSurprising that Cryptonomicon was not mentioned in your entry, Jeff... its a fun (if not fantastic) look at Turing.
Those of you who have not read it - stop reading this and go get a copy!
Ordinary Geek on July 2, 2008 9:00 AMHaving checked the website myself, The Code Book is the original book, The Science of Secrecy is the name of the TV series and its tie-in book, which is based on The Code Book. Not confusing, no.
jim on July 2, 2008 9:01 AMDon't let the long German words scare you. They're always taking long phrases and putting them together into single words.
Actually, we do this, because we are to lazy to invent new words. The scary look is just a nice side effect.
keppla on July 2, 2008 9:02 AMNothing in Genesis mentions an apple...
Steve on July 2, 2008 9:14 AM@ rwinston,
You are correct sir. You can find a reference to this fact here:
http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/05/23
Ivan on July 2, 2008 9:17 AMWhat is perhaps even sadder are the conditions that continue to exist. How many young Turings die as teen agers, facing the same persecution? Not, it's not instituionalized as it was then, but it can be pretty harsh just the same.
Turning's death is sad not because he was a great mind. Even 'little' minds deserve to not be harassed and persecuted.
Rich on July 2, 2008 9:24 AM@ Bloodboiler,
And, Descartes put together hydraulic automata.
You know there is a difference between automated puppets and robots, right?
Ivan on July 2, 2008 9:28 AMThe computer you're using to read this post is based on the mathematical model laid out in that thirty-six page 1936 paper.
Well, yes and no. Yes in the same sense that the computer you're using is loosely conceptually based on the Babbage difference engine. No in the sense that, no, our computers don't run on the Turing machine architecture in any strict way whatsoever. We owe a lot more to the Von Neumann architecture than to the Turing description. (Yes, Von Neumann was doing this in the context of Turing, but no, it is not a simple step from Turing to Von Neumann.)
(Have you actually read the Turing test paper? It's really quite interesting -- much more bizarre than the version of the Turing test as known today. The original Turing test was about distinguishing humans from machines in the context of games in which men pretend to be women and vice versa.)
Shmork on July 2, 2008 9:47 AMColossus is being rebuilt, in the face of the terrible predations of developers (sic) on Bletchley Park. Here is Tony Sale's project:
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/rebuild.htm
I believe the Beeb had a piece about this recently.
Tomato Queen on July 2, 2008 9:50 AMPersonally I like Grace Hopper http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/hopper.htm
She basically invented the first compiler and was a tireless advocate for computers for a long long time.
Terra on July 2, 2008 10:11 AMBut yes, I could have written about the layout, Petzold's writing/research, etc. You'll just have to trust me, I suppose: all top notch.
Could have? Should have! If for no other reason than at least to be consistent with every other book review on this site.
Still -- you have to have some interest in the subject before we even begin.
I just don't understand why you'd spruke a book whose content you don't regard as accessible enough (presumably) to blog about at length. I know Turing machines are hard but they're cool and very important for understanding computability!
If you wanted to talk about Turing in the general sense you didn't need to so prominently feature the book. Since you did, you could have at least commented on the content beyond trust me! it's great! (to paraphrase your post).
I'm trying hard to think this isn't some shameless plug for a book you didn't read but you're not making it easy :(
Daniel on July 2, 2008 10:33 AM555 thanks for the note about his new book,
I love charles petzold, he opened my eyes to the internals inside mother board else I'd have had less grades in digital logic class.
i agree w/ you on his patience in writing too. kudos for him
will it be on your recommended reading list as well?
chakrit on July 2, 2008 10:39 AMHi Jeff, the fruit in the first book of the bible is not (at least imperatively) an apple. It just mentions a fruit.
It also doesn't symbolize forbidden love. The fruit itself gives the knowledge to differ between good and evil. It is forbidden for the adam and eve, but they eat from it. They don't eat from it because of love, but because of curiosity and eagerness (the snake/devil promises them the power of god if they eat it). So the fruit symbolizes the rebelling of man agains god.
Anyway: great post, nice to see an homage for a computer pioneer from time to time in your blog.
Hinek on July 2, 2008 10:56 AMThe Poles broke the early Enigma - showing it could be done at all, but could not extend it to the more complex Enigma, Various people at Bletchley Park then extended this to the more complex variants of Enigma, Turing showed how to semi-automate this process and designed the Bombes that were electro-mechanical devices to do this ...
He had a minor role in the design of Colossus - which broke the Lorenz Cypher (much more complex than Enigma) and was the first to realise it was a (near) universal computer (and program it to write (bad) poetry)
Tommy Flowers came up with the idea of a machine with a huge number of valves which would be reliable if never switched off (it's the power surges that blow valves) and is always credited with the design (but knew nothing of the mathematics required and never designed another computer) Max Newman and his team actually designed the system
Babbage's Analytical Engine was Turing Complete, was a Von Neumann machine, before either was born .... it had software written for it (by Ada Lovelace, with bugs in it ....) it influenced Vannavar Bush and the makers of the Harvard Mark I : Babbage died in poverty and only three people went to his funeral ...
On giant German words: how about Schuetzengrabenvernichtungsautomobil, literally automobile for destruction of defensive trenches, commonly called a Tank.
On only the good mathematicians die young: Euler and Gauss are big exceptions to the examples you give. How many Euler's theorem and Gauss' theorem are there? Many. They both lived to ripe old age, and were fruitful all the way into the grave. I read (I think in Everything and More: A History of Infinity, a great book for anyone who suffered through a Real Analysis course in math) that Gauss actually was so fruitful that he held back mathematical progress for decades: he had so many results worked out that he would scoop other mathematicians. Often when someone published a new result he would point out that, in his notebooks, he had already proved the same theorem twenty years earlier. Very intimidating.
An interesting take on Turing is Janna Levin's novel 'A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines' - http://www.jannalevin.com/books.html
It ties together Turing and Godel in a magical realist sort of way - but all the dialog is taken from their writings. It's extensively footnoted, but I'd probably expect that from a novelist who's also a PhD in physics from MIT.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it immensely.
protected static on July 2, 2008 11:20 AMhe had already proved the same theorem twenty years earlier...
This seems to be always true of mathematics? Physicists came to rely on wandering down to the Maths department and asking for a formula for their latest theory and getting directed to an esoteric work by a long dead mathematician, that they were surprised when String theory got ahead of the mathematicians (which is one of the reasons it is not fully worked out yet ...)
Jaster on July 2, 2008 11:24 AMFrank,
I don't believe science should be related
in any way to nationality.
Here, nationality should be extended to culture. Western culture in Europe and North American fostered a foundation and environment for innovation. For example, Ramanujan, an Indian, flourished because of western culture and would have been irrelevant without it. How much innovation came out of Asia or Africa?
Chris on July 2, 2008 12:24 PMThe real father of computer science is Charles Babbage.
I, for one, greatly respect mister Turing (Turing Machines was my favorite subject back at the university) . But I do vote of Edsger Dijkstra as the greatest pioneer in computer science.
Julien Grenier on July 2, 2008 12:34 PMAlthough Turing did work on breaking the Enigma machine, it was Polish mathematicians who actually broke it (Marian Rejewski, Jerzy R#380;ycki and Henryk Zygalski). Only because Brits were managing the project do they get all the glory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
Jakub Konecki on July 2, 2008 1:02 PMThanks Jeff, that was a beautiful post.
Ben on July 2, 2008 1:05 PMI sometimes wonder why some genius leave so soon... If Ramanujan hadn't died at age 33, who knows what kind of revolutionary theory he would have found. Abel received the equivalent of a math nobel prize a year after he died at age 29. Celcius died at 42. Galois (math. topology - cryptography) also lived 29 years and nearly ended in prison. Carnot (thermodynamics) died at 36. Hertz (waves) at 36. Pascal (most math. theorems) at 39. They all leave in a dramatic or poetic way, creating legends and dreams as to what they would have become.
Nico on July 2, 2008 1:09 PMJakub Konecki, I don't believe science should be related in any way to nationality.
Frank on July 2, 2008 1:11 PMThere's a lot of (fictional) Turing in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.
Sad story, truly, for such a brilliant mind.
Tim on July 2, 2008 1:14 PMAs a German I would like to comment that there's nothing scary about the work Entscheidungsproblem. It's no more complex than, say, Fahrvergnuegen and doesn't even have an Umlaut. In some ways the German version is more readily parsed than decision problem which throws in semantically superfluous whitespace. I would settle for EntscheidungsProblem but not entscheidungs_problem since German uses captitalization for nouns.
queisser on July 2, 2008 1:24 PM@ Chris,For
example, Ramanujan, an Indian, flourished because of western culture and would have been irrelevant without it. How much innovation came out of Asia or Africa?
Wow! You either went to a really bad school, or you are not very curious, or you get all your information ..... well, talking to very badly informed people.
Granted, culture [ namely Western culture ] influences science and the science that we know now is very much Western Science and that Western culture and science was instrumental to Ramanujan's development as a mathematician. However, I have to ask how much history of science and mathematics do you know? Well, I guess it is clear.
China is in Asia. Binary number system came from china. The fact that Gottfried Leibniz makes use of it is only because he read the I Ching.
India is in china. Who do you think came up with the idea of Zero?
Egypt is in Africa. Did you not ever come across anything that came out of Egypt. You know that obscure little city called Alexandria with its obscure little Library?
And, I end with a WOW! I had heard bad things about public schools, but by God ... wait, I went to public shools too.
Anvar on July 2, 2008 1:40 PMThanks for bringing up the memory of Turing. I think of his contributions every time I take a cup of coffee, seeing as the 1 year membership anniversary gift from ACM was a Alan Turing cup.
Cheers Alan, may you now have found the compassion and tolerance that you never enjoyed in life.
Casper Bang on July 2, 2008 1:46 PMAs it was written above Poles had broken Enigma code long before 2nd World War began (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine).
In the 1939, just before the war, they shared, they new allies, everything French and Britons.
During the war Britons had to read huge number of German messages. Britons just made better and faster machines based on original Polish machine called Cryptologic bomb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba_(cryptography)).
Of course, Alan Turing was genius and it's nice they played on the same side with Poles.
Grzegorz Gierlik on July 2, 2008 1:49 PMEnigma was broken first by the Polish and this gave the British cryptographers the start they needed, but when the Poles gave their research to the British the Germans had increased the complexity of Enigma and the Poles methods no longer broke it... Alan turnings breakthrough was automating the decryption... and working on Colossus that was use the break the more secure German code systems (not Enigma)
Charles Babbage designed (but was never given funding to finish building) the first Turing Complete computer ... the Analytical Engine, he also broke the Vigenre cypher, then thought to be unbreakable ...
Jaster on July 2, 2008 1:55 PM@Patrick. No matter how much we disagree with a law, we don't have the right to break them.
If we took that ignorant comment seriously, women may not have been given the vote, apartheid could still be enforced. I suggest you actually read a book about civil disobedience to understand how laws change in the face of protest.
To be consistent you'd also have to condemn the law-breaking of Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and Pankhurst. Such a position is clearly ridiculous, because these people all helped the world become a better place.
Coldly suggesting Turing should some how become a social protestor, without any of the relevant skills or aptitude, is a simplistic, almost childish, view of what was possible for Turing in 1950's Britain.
Instead, we're left with a great scientist that killed himself. Have you actually considered that his action was so extreme and poignant, that it changed minds? Don't you realise that intelligent people looking at the case decided the law needed changing - which indeed it did.
Thank you Jeff, for bringing my attention to another interesting book.
Jo on July 3, 2008 2:16 AMHow fitting and ironic at the same time; my ACM anniversary mug arrived today with a picture of Turing. Next to his picture was,
Computing Pioneer:
1) Formalized the concept of algorithms and computation with his universal computing machine
2) The ACM A.M. Turing Award, the most prestigious honor in computing, is named for him
3) Key World War II code breaking pioneer
Not too shabby.
Patrick on July 3, 2008 4:24 AMOf course, Alan Turing was genius and it's nice they played on the same side with Poles.
Ick. I just got a bad visual of Alan Turing pole dancing...
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| Content (c) 2009 Jeff Atwood. Logo image used with permission of the author. (c) 1993 Steven C. McConnell. All Rights Reserved. |
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