“Alan Turing: Codebreaker, Visionary, Enigma” – with Andrew Hodges

Summary Andrew Hodges (Website, Wikipedia) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the life and work of Alan Turing. Andrew is an emeritus senior research fellow of mathematics at the University of Oxford.

What You’ll Learn Intelligence

Turing’s early foundations for artificial intelligence

Interwar cryptanalysis

Bletchley Park, Hut 8, and British Naval Intelligence

The mechanics of the Bombe machine

Reflections

Legacy changing alongside social history

The weight and pressure of genius

And much, much more …

Quotes of the Week “Everything that you do with the digital, everything that we're doing now through these computers, flows from his perceptions. And that in turn came through his practical experience during the Second World War on breaking the enemy codes.” – Andrew Hodges .

Resources SURFACE SKIM *SpyCasts*

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Hitler’s Trojan Horse – Nazi Intelligence with Nigel West (2023)

How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Spy Game with Mike Susong (2023)

*Beginner Resources*

Alan Turing, B.J. Copeland, Britannica (2024) [Short biography]

How Did the Enigma Machine Work? Science Museum Group, YouTube (2019) [2 min. video]

How Alan Turing Cracked the Enigma Code, Imperial War Museum (n.d.) [Short article]

DEEPER DIVE Books

The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, J. D. Turing (Arcturus, 2020)

Turing’s Vision: The Birth of Computer Science, C. Bernhardt (MIT Press, 2017)

Alan Turing: The Enigma, A. Hodges (Burnett Books/Hutchinson, 1983)

Primary Sources

Alan Turing Obituary and Tributes (1954)

Can digital computers think? (1951)

Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

Proposed electronic calculator (1946)

Turing’s Treatise on the Enigma (1939-1942)

On Computable Numbers (1936)

*Wildcard Resource*

Alan Turing’s School Report Card

Didn’t do very well in high school? Neither did Alan Turing. Amongst hopeful comments about his promising skills in mathematics, teachers noted Turing’s carelessness and severe lack of neatness in his work.

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