biography of Alan Turing
A Biography of Alan Turing, with Mathematics.
From the middle name one may suspect a certain class value,although the "Math" bit is a strange coincidence.
His father went to Oxford and then worked for the Indian Civil Service. His mother's father also worked in India. He was born in 1912, their second son. 1926 his father retired so perhaps he had something of normal family life from then on. Went to Sherborne, one of older public schools. Whilst there he became a close friend of Christopher Morcom. He was Alan's first love although Chris as in no way homosexual.
Has been called "his unfulfilled ideal" Otherwise only short liasons. Alan said "worshipped ground he trod on" . Could discuss science together overcoming alan's shyness. In Feb 1930 Christopher died from complications of tb. It is noteworthy that all his homo affairs were transient and suggests that Christopher was an unrequited first love that her could never forget.
Alan had a staggering degree of literal mindeness. e.g was told he should have signed his identity card, but to him the instruction 'do not write any thing' on the card meant exactly that. Also when required to say "do you understand that by enrolling in the home guard you make your self liable to military rule," he answered no. Later tired of it and missed parades but legally he was not a soldier and so could not be punished. Utmost correctness...mathematical logic....its aim.
Also what to my mind is his key characteristic, is his complete originality of thought. His approach to nay problem was basic and made little if any reference to existing work or lines of thought on the subject. Scale of a problem and previous failures meant nothing to him. Will see several exampes of this.
e.g. his homosexuality which he simply accepted and thought others would as well. Presumably this did not lead to early clashes with the law because so much of his life was spent in special surroundings....public school, Cambridge,
From the middle name one may suspect a certain class value,although the "Math" bit is a strange coincidence.
His father went to Oxford and then worked for the Indian Civil Service. His mother's father also worked in India. He was born in 1912, their second son. 1926 his father retired so perhaps he had something of normal family life from then on. Went to Sherborne, one of older public schools. Whilst there he became a close friend of Christopher Morcom. He was Alan's first love although Chris as in no way homosexual.
Has been called "his unfulfilled ideal" Otherwise only short liasons. Alan said "worshipped ground he trod on" . Could discuss science together overcoming alan's shyness. In Feb 1930 Christopher died from complications of tb. It is noteworthy that all his homo affairs were transient and suggests that Christopher was an unrequited first love that her could never forget.
Alan had a staggering degree of literal mindeness. e.g was told he should have signed his identity card, but to him the instruction 'do not write any thing' on the card meant exactly that. Also when required to say "do you understand that by enrolling in the home guard you make your self liable to military rule," he answered no. Later tired of it and missed parades but legally he was not a soldier and so could not be punished. Utmost correctness...mathematical logic....its aim.
Also what to my mind is his key characteristic, is his complete originality of thought. His approach to nay problem was basic and made little if any reference to existing work or lines of thought on the subject. Scale of a problem and previous failures meant nothing to him. Will see several exampes of this.
e.g. his homosexuality which he simply accepted and thought others would as well. Presumably this did not lead to early clashes with the law because so much of his life was spent in special surroundings....public school, Cambridge,