The Turing guide

The legacy of one of the greatest minds of the 20th century is very much alive.

- Bob Brockie

SCIENCE

You may have seen the movie The Imitation Game, in which Benedict Cumberbatch played the role of British mathematician Alan Turing. The 2014 film was a great success, grossing US$233 million.

Turing was a pioneer and visionary. In 1936, the young Cambridge graduate conceived a model of computation, now simply called the Turing machine, which is regarded as the basis for all artificial intelligence and even as imitating aspects of the brain.

Turing turned his theoretical idea into ablazingly fast electronic computer called the ACE. But before that, he designed smaller, slower, computers for cracking Nazi Enigma-coded messages, which helped shorten World War II and saved millions of lives. Marketers renamed ACE as DEUCE, and it was sold commercially in the 1950s.

Turing continued researching and writing until his death in 1954, aged 41. But his legacy is maintained, notably in New Zealand and Switzerland.