Dr. Andrew Hodges - Alan Turing: The Enigma

This lecture was recorded on December 7, 2014-one of the last in a series of over 350 Distinguished Science Lectures presented by the Skeptics Society since 1992.
It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades - all before his suicide at age 41. In November a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing will be released, based on the classic biography by Dr. Andrew Hodges, who teaches mathematics at Wadham College, University of Oxford (he is also an active contributor to the mathematics of fundamental physics).
Hodges tells how Turing’s revolutionary idea of 1936 - the concept of a universal machine - laid the foundation for the modern computer and how Turing brought the idea to practical realization in 1945 with his electronic design. Hodges also tells how this work was directly related to Turing’s leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph that was critical to Allied victory in the Atlantic. At the same time, this is the tragic story of a man who, despite his wartime service, was eventually arrested, stripped of his security clearance, and forced to undergo a humiliating treatment program - all for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime.
Order Alan Turing: The Enigma (goo.gl/h4Cn17), the book that inspired the film The Imitation Game (goo.gl/MY57y3).
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[@davidwright8432]

I think a crucial and very unusual aspect of Alan Turing's personality was that he combined deep powers of intellectual abstraction, with a gleeful tinkering with actual machines and gadgets. And seeing how to instantiate the abstractions in the mechanical/physical world. While letting the devices inform his abstract view of machines.

[@russbellew6378]

Excellent! Dr. Hodges' biography of Turing is a masterpiece. This lecture was worthwhile.

[@KipIngram]

Great lecture Dr. Hodges. There's a lot there to think about on so many fronts.

[@MrDaiseymay]

What a wondefully detailed account of the life of a genius. One hundred and 40 minutes, he certainly earned his applause. BUT---Having read Dr. Andrews Biography of Turing, some years ago, I was COMPLETELY mistified, by his decision to sell the rights of his book to the maker's of that pathetic junk of a film, ''The immitation Game''. Having listened here, to his brilliant account of Turings life, ( with some contradictions to his book) I am as baffled by his decision, as ever. Perhaps the money was too tempting.

[@josephpelzel3144]

I went into computer science at UC Berkeley in 1972 and loved it.

[@sophrapsune]

Wonderful, interesting lecture. Thanks very much.

[@woodennecktie]

very good balance between the person and his skills , turing comes out nice

[@MooseheadStudios]

amazing work here. must be kept Alan is much funnier then i would have thought.

[@KipIngram]

I think you have to respect him quite a lot for not charging ahead with a marriage that would have made for good appearances - there was probably quite a lot of social pressure to do that. I admire his integrity and his courage.

[@dragon3252]

Very interesting. Thank you!

[@KipIngram]

Given how competitive and secretive everyone was with their ideas at the time, who really cares who was first? I can give Turing and von Neumann plenty of credit - both of them were absolutely brilliant men. And it's very very common in science and technology for ideas to appear in multiple places around the same time - ultimately everyone is building on what has come before, and they all have access to that legacy. So it's not surprising at all.

[@roberttobias2153]

Interesting lecture on a fascinating scientist. Thank you to everyone at Skeptic.

[@KipIngram]

24:00 - Well, are WE going to get to see this striking photograph?

[@mrgiantanthem]

This is so very interesting!!

[@douglachman7330]

It would be very beneficial to show what your looking at and describing so much. The speach is great substance.

[@MrDaiseymay]

I couldn't hear the questions; As for your issues, shouldn't those who invited the guest, supply the best in screens and MIcrophones etc ?

[@charlesmaeger6162]

Einstein also, from a young age, could see the processes of nature, in his imagination, almost like cartoons.

[@mc2594]

@1:31:30 _The Imitation Game_ depicted Alan Turins team developing a system called ULTRA which reduced the chance of anyone knowing Enigma was broken, the minimum specific reaction for the maximum overall effect, a mathematical statistics code for the broken code. I think that's what the question was referring to if not the answer.

[@MrDaiseymay]

Ignore that films script, buy the book, for FACTS

[@seanbrowning720]

All right, I am going to use some of your images for a project.(I will credit you)

[@KipIngram]

I think it's telling that he called it "the imitation game." Because that's what artificial intelligence does. It IMITATES the human mind. And there's a difference between an imitation and the real thing.

[@SuburbanDon]

At 35 minutes in. Show the friggin drawing !!!

[@ilanpi]

I will always remember Michael Shermer as "Michael Sherman" as denoted by the mayor of Savannah GA, at the arrival of the Race Across America 1994. I guess those Georgians don't forget easy...

[@minhsp3]

show the screen, dummy people who cares about looking at this guy when he looked at the screen himself BTW this is an excellent talk

[@TheTallStork]

I've learned sooooo much as to how being gay effected his life and sooooo little about his legacy, the Touring Test.

[@petekdemircioglu]

Yes. The man is dead but discrimination continues.

[@MrDaiseymay]

He answered the questions, do some reading, it's all out there.

[@Johnconno]

Bad move, not having a Mary Beard.

[@alanl.simmons9726]

Isn't it interesting how Alan Turning was bullied to suicide while Hardy Aimes had royal favoritism

[@MrDaiseymay]

You obviously didn't pay attention . He wasn't bullied, he was reminded that he had signed the National Secrecy document, it was the middle of the Cold War, people like him were being kiddknapped by the KGB, and tortured for their secrets.

[@robbyandrews9753]

Do you have a poit of mathematics or quantum.. Ok, well start writing! 1938- the 9

[@cygil1]

@37:20 This is garbled as hell. Is the "special password" referring to the Kriegsmarine's unorthodox indicator system or the bigram substitution tables that were used to double-encrypt Enigma messages and were also utilized to encrypt the indicators (session keys) for each message? Either way, Turing made no progress on either of those in 1939-40, as mentioned he had to wait for the U-110 pinch (capture of cipher materials) and the Polares pinch on 26 April 1941 to supply his team with the relevant key materials to partially reconstruct the bigram tables, which took them until November 1941. In 1939-40 his major contribution was his work on the Turing-Welchman bombes, and by far the most important aspect of the Turing-Welchman bombes was Welchman's diagonal board algorithm, which was Welchman's, not Turing's, achievement. As far as the importance of naval engima goes, doubtless breaking it was very important, but Welchman's work in Hut 6 on Luftwaffe and Heer Enigma was equally important, as was Dilly Knox's (initially) "all-girl" team in the cottage that broke the Italian naval Enigma and the Abwehr (German intelligence) enigma, this last being arguably equally as difficult as Naval enigma, being a four-rotor steckered machine like the naval variant with the added complication of psuedorandom wheel stepping. There's no doubt that if Turing had done Knox's work on Abwehr Enigma Doctor Hodges would be waving it as exhibit one of Turing's genius.

[@perisword7918]

Someone’s butthurt