1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:06,279 Speaker 1: Hey listeners, Happy Saturday. Today we are sharing our twelve 2 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:09,560 Speaker 1: podcast on Alan Touring, and this one comes from past 3 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:13,080 Speaker 1: hosts Sarah and Bablina. We also have an update to 4 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: this episode and twenty third team. Alan Turing was granted 5 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: a royal pardon for his nineteen fifty two conviction for 6 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:24,319 Speaker 1: gross indecency. That pardon came into effect on December, and 7 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: while this posthumous pardon was generally praised, it was also 8 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: criticized because thousands of other men had faced similar convictions, 9 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,159 Speaker 1: but when Alan Touring was pardoned, they were not. However, 10 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 1: a law nicknamed the Alan Touring Law received royal assent 11 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,560 Speaker 1: in ten and that paved the way to pardon men, 12 00:00:43,880 --> 00:00:46,960 Speaker 1: primarily gay and bisexual men, who had been convicted of 13 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,280 Speaker 1: these types of crimes under laws that have since been abolished, 14 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 1: and a mass pardon followed in January of it did 15 00:00:55,440 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: include other previous podcast subject Oscar Wilde. At that point, 16 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 1: about fifteen thousand of the sixty five thousand men who 17 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: had been convicted under these now repealed laws, we're actually 18 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: still living. So listening for Alan Touring. Welcome to Stuff 19 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:24,440 Speaker 1: you missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, 20 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm 21 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: Deblina Choker Boarding and today we're going to be talking 22 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:34,399 Speaker 1: about Alan Turing. And he's considered the father of computer science, 23 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:38,160 Speaker 1: the father of artificial intelligence, and also one of the 24 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,640 Speaker 1: most important wartime code breakers in World War Two. So 25 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:45,399 Speaker 1: quite a resume just right off the bat there, and 26 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: for listeners with a more literary bent, he's also been 27 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: called the Shelley of Science, which is a name I 28 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:53,800 Speaker 1: kind of took a shine to you. Yeah, and others 29 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 1: have too. He's been a really popular podcast suggestion. Though 30 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: his resumes focus on math and technology has always kind 31 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: of scared us off a little bit. I think, I 32 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 1: mean things like number theory, probability, computer programs, stung our 33 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: usual subject matter stuff. I'm I'm honestly a little scared 34 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:15,200 Speaker 1: to get into too deeply. But fortunately some of his 35 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: work really transcends the arcane. It's it's understandable if you 36 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: put some effort into it, and there's a wealth of 37 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: biographical materials to which I feel like the last few 38 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 1: podcasts I've done that has not been the case. It 39 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,080 Speaker 1: was a little it was a little refreshing really to 40 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: research Alan Turing and know that there's so much out 41 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,200 Speaker 1: there about this man. There are m I T lectures, 42 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,520 Speaker 1: there's a digital archive at Alan Turing dot net. Their 43 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: articles in just about every science journal you can name, 44 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,639 Speaker 1: and there's a House Stuff Works podcast too. Yeah, Jonathan 45 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:49,360 Speaker 1: and Chris talked about Tern's life lass fall on Tech 46 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: Stuff and so that's a great place to turn if 47 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: you want to a little more of an in depth 48 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:58,919 Speaker 1: discussion on programming. Yeah, specifically, I was glad though that 49 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: even they amitted that the math was kind of tricky 50 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: to discuss. It's just so high level. But they do 51 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: really do a good job covering the programming and in 52 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: that side of turning story. But it's also June, which 53 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: is Pride Month, and that's why we've picked Turing for 54 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:20,120 Speaker 1: today's topic. He's a great, if tragic example of a 55 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: remarkable man, really a genius whose life was so clearly 56 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:27,840 Speaker 1: defined by his homosexuality and reminded me a lot of 57 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 1: Oscar Wilde, who Katie and I covered last year for 58 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: Pride Months. He was another man who was really destroyed 59 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: by prejudice at the absolute height of his achievements. So 60 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,280 Speaker 1: it's a great story to learn about and it's it's 61 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: good to know about Turing's achievements, but it is also 62 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:48,080 Speaker 1: a really, really sad story. Yeah it is. But before 63 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: we get to that, we're going to start sort of 64 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: with the beginnings of his life. Alan Mathison Turing was 65 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,320 Speaker 1: born June twelve in London to a member of the 66 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: Indian civil service. His father actually served in the Madrass 67 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: presidency and his mother's father was the chief engineer of 68 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: the Madrass Railways, but Turning didn't grow up in India. Instead, 69 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:09,960 Speaker 1: his parents had the kids fostered in British homes, which, 70 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: as you can imagine, was pretty lonely, and his parents 71 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: didn't even come back to England until ninety, not until 72 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: his dad retired. So he spent prep school trying to 73 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: do as much science and math as he could get 74 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 1: away with, which at the time it wasn't really the agenda. 75 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,039 Speaker 1: I guess he would be an outstanding student these days, 76 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: but his skepticism and his curiosity also sometimes got him 77 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: in trouble with with the authority figures at school. But 78 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:40,160 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty eight he had his first experience of 79 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: true intellectual stimulation. He made friends with a boy who 80 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: was one year ahead of him, Christopher morecam and Jonathan 81 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: and Chris. The way they explained this, I really liked 82 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: it the way they explained the friendship. Essentially, the two 83 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 1: kids could bounce ideas off of each other and combine 84 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:00,919 Speaker 1: what they knew and really come away from it with 85 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 1: a deeper understanding. So sort of a friendship of two 86 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:09,599 Speaker 1: minds that was really influential in the young Churing's life. Yeah. 87 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: So when Morcomb died suddenly in nineteen thirty teenage Churning 88 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 1: was left wondering what happened to Markham's consciousness. He was 89 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: pretty devastated and and wanted to explore that idea further. 90 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:22,279 Speaker 1: So for three years he wrote letters to Morkholm's mother 91 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:25,719 Speaker 1: trying to figure out the relationship between mind and matter. 92 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:28,839 Speaker 1: And that's a quest that would later define his work 93 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:30,920 Speaker 1: and artificial intelligence, which you're going to talk about a 94 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:32,600 Speaker 1: little more in a few minutes. Yeah, I will definitely 95 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 1: be talking about that. But in October nineteen thirty one, 96 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: so while he's really in the middle of his grief 97 00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 1: and and this new look into the relationship between mind 98 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:46,479 Speaker 1: and matter, he goes off to college King's College, Cambridge, 99 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: and of course he studies math, and it was really 100 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 1: a different inspiring environment for him to one where he 101 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:56,719 Speaker 1: could think creatively. He could study things like philosophy and 102 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,720 Speaker 1: economics and surround himself by intel people, and also recognized 103 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: his own sexuality, and he socialized with some of the 104 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:10,440 Speaker 1: anti war intellectual circle. But his politics weren't really sharply 105 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: defined during this period. His main recreation was athletic. He 106 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: liked running and rowing and sailing, and of course doing math. Yeah, 107 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:21,520 Speaker 1: by nineteen thirty four he had received a distinguished degree, 108 00:06:21,560 --> 00:06:24,359 Speaker 1: and by nineteen thirty five, at age twenty two, he 109 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: got a fellowship to King's College. So well on this 110 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:31,080 Speaker 1: intellectual path of his. But it was in nineteen thirty 111 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:35,400 Speaker 1: five that Turing started tackling and intriguing mathematical question, and 112 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:39,200 Speaker 1: that's the question of decidability. And during that process he 113 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:43,360 Speaker 1: envisions a machine that could complete computational operations just like 114 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,839 Speaker 1: the human brain. The Turing machine at that point was 115 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:50,160 Speaker 1: purely theoretical, but it could perform any kind of operation 116 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:53,679 Speaker 1: it was programmed to do. Play chess, calculate numbers, anything 117 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 1: like that. And that idea develops into the idea of 118 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: a universal Turing machine, which could hand any task, and 119 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,239 Speaker 1: individual Touring machine could. So for example, if the Turing 120 00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:07,839 Speaker 1: machine is the early computer program, the universal machine would 121 00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 1: be the early computer, the one machine that can do 122 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:13,400 Speaker 1: any task as programmed to do. Yeah, and a guy 123 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: named b. Jack Copeland described the significance of this creation 124 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:19,720 Speaker 1: in an M. I. T. Lecture. And it really helped 125 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: me understand how important it was, because it might seem 126 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: a little old hat if you if you just look 127 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: at it like a computer or computer program, he said. Nowadays, 128 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: when nearly everyone owns the physical realization of a universal 129 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 1: Turing machine, Turing's idea of a one stop shop computing 130 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: machine is apt to seem as obvious as the wheel. 131 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: But in nineteen thirty six, engineers thought in terms of 132 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 1: building specific machines for particular purposes. So this was really 133 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: a revolutionary idea at the time. And of course some 134 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: people realize that, but not everyone knew the full implications 135 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:59,120 Speaker 1: of of what this idea would eventually come to. Yeah, 136 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,080 Speaker 1: and it would be more than a decade before the 137 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:04,960 Speaker 1: physical realization of a touring machine was actually built. Until then, 138 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: Touring continued continued his studies at Princeton and then returned 139 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: to England and Cambridge before the outbreak of World War Two, 140 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: and then on the first full day of the war 141 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:16,200 Speaker 1: he joined the Government Code and Cipher School, whose headquarters 142 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:19,040 Speaker 1: were at the now famous Bletchley Park in London. Yeah, 143 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:22,680 Speaker 1: and the g CCS was busy bringing together all of 144 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 1: the country's top minds at this point, so mathematicians like Touring, 145 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: that also chess players and Egyptologists, all sorts of smart 146 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,160 Speaker 1: people with different kinds of skills, anyone who they hoped 147 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:37,720 Speaker 1: might lend insight into breaking German codes, which was what 148 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: they were all about in the Chief Code at the time. 149 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: The one that was really giving them the most trouble 150 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: was the Enigma, and Polish Cryptanalysis had been working on 151 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,800 Speaker 1: the Enigma for a really long time since nineteen thirty two, 152 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:54,320 Speaker 1: and they had created a code breaking machine called the 153 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,320 Speaker 1: bomba a few years after that, but by nineteen thirty nine, 154 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 1: Touring and others were helping to create a new machine, 155 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:04,320 Speaker 1: one that could adapt to the Enigma because it got 156 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: to where the Germans were changing the codes every twenty 157 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:10,679 Speaker 1: four hours pretty much. So he helped develop a new 158 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:15,640 Speaker 1: machine called the bomb which could decipher loofafa Enigma communications. 159 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:19,359 Speaker 1: There's a really neat British Heritage article by Gene Paskey 160 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:22,680 Speaker 1: about Bletchley Park, which I recommend if you just sort 161 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: of want to get a picture of it. We were 162 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:27,199 Speaker 1: actually talking about this might be a good episode in itself, 163 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: but I hope we don't give too much away. It 164 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,520 Speaker 1: nicely describes rooms full of these machines and the operators 165 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 1: who maintain them. And in case you think that they're 166 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:41,880 Speaker 1: little tiny devices like we're used to today, little electronic devices, 167 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:44,920 Speaker 1: they're not in any sense like that. They are large 168 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: mechanical machines that required a lot of upkeep. They had 169 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:53,000 Speaker 1: to be kept clean, um they were. They took up 170 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,839 Speaker 1: the room essentially. So these really big machines. They helped 171 00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:00,520 Speaker 1: crack the Air Force Enigma, but the German naval Enigma 172 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:03,480 Speaker 1: was kind of a tougher nut to crack and also 173 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: critical for winning the Battle of the Atlantic. So Turing 174 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,320 Speaker 1: had worked out part of the code in nineteen thirty nine, 175 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: but the big break in the situation came courtesy of 176 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,440 Speaker 1: the Royal Navy when they captured an Enigma machine and 177 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:18,760 Speaker 1: code book from a U boat. So by June one 178 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:21,920 Speaker 1: U boat traffic was decipherable. Yeah, they had cracked the code, 179 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 1: and by early nineteen forty two, Bletchley Park was decoding 180 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:29,679 Speaker 1: thirty nine thousand German transmissions a month, and of course 181 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:33,680 Speaker 1: some of those were complaints about the underwear splitting down 182 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:35,840 Speaker 1: the middle and that type of thing, but also some 183 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:40,080 Speaker 1: really serious communications in there. It rose to an eventual 184 00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:45,720 Speaker 1: eighty four thousand transmissions a month, so pretty astonishing figure. 185 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:49,240 Speaker 1: And with the nineteen forty three breaking of Germany's high 186 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:53,920 Speaker 1: level binary teleprinter code, which was what Hitler himself used, 187 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 1: and high members of his government um Churchill, was able 188 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:01,280 Speaker 1: to read Hitler's mail before or Hitler could read it. 189 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,439 Speaker 1: According to Posh's article, something I thought was interesting and 190 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:08,199 Speaker 1: something I never knew about Bletchley Park. Yeah, me neither. 191 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: But it turns out the combined efforts of Bletchley Park 192 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:13,840 Speaker 1: shortened the war by two years, and for his part, 193 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: Turing received the Order of the British Empire, which was 194 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:27,000 Speaker 1: one of the most prestigious awards you could get. Yeah. 195 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:29,240 Speaker 1: And so after the war he's looking for a new 196 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:33,240 Speaker 1: job and he was recruited to the National Physics Laboratory, 197 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:37,280 Speaker 1: and the task, conveniently enough, was to design and build 198 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:41,559 Speaker 1: an electronic computer so essentially a real Turing machine seems 199 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:43,520 Speaker 1: like just the guy to bring in to do this. 200 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:47,160 Speaker 1: And he called his new design the Automatic Computing Engine, 201 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:50,840 Speaker 1: which has the lovely acronym ACE. But it made a 202 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:54,600 Speaker 1: good computer, uh, and it was a really ambitious advanced 203 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,200 Speaker 1: design it. If it had been built, it would have 204 00:11:57,240 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 1: had the memory capacity of an early MAX. So that's 205 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:04,280 Speaker 1: pretty astounding if he consider this immediately after a World 206 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:07,480 Speaker 1: War Two. Yeah, but things moved more slowly than they 207 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 1: had at Bletchley Park. There was lots of red tape 208 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:12,960 Speaker 1: to deal with, and Turing's colleagues thought that the original 209 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: ACE design was too much and opted for a smaller machine, 210 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:20,080 Speaker 1: which was called the Pilot Model ACE. So part of 211 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: the problem here was that Turing's wartime achievements were unrecognized 212 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: due to their secrecy. Yeah, he couldn't go out and say, well, 213 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:30,360 Speaker 1: guys at Bletchley Park, I did this. I mean, he 214 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,480 Speaker 1: couldn't talk about any of that stuff. Yeah, he couldn't 215 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: brag on himself. So to relieve the frustration and the 216 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:40,319 Speaker 1: stress of the situation, he started long distance running. And 217 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: it took an injury actually to prevent him from qualifying 218 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:46,000 Speaker 1: for the nine Olympic Marathon team. So he was pretty 219 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,319 Speaker 1: good at it. It's really good at it. It's it's 220 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:50,559 Speaker 1: one of those I don't know, it's like a cherry 221 00:12:50,559 --> 00:12:52,800 Speaker 1: on top for somebody with so many talents that they 222 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:54,920 Speaker 1: would also be an amazing athlete. Well, I was going 223 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:56,960 Speaker 1: to say, it's almost not fair, but you're kinder than 224 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: I am, obviously. Yeah, well, whatever way you look at it. 225 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: But by this point, delays meant that the National Physics 226 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: Laboratory wasn't going to be the first place that built 227 00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:13,080 Speaker 1: the first working electronics stored program digital computer. That honor 228 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: went to Manchester University and it happened in June. So 229 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: Turing obviously frustrated by his his time at the National 230 00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 1: Physics Laboratory, and they got beat out. Yeah, they got 231 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 1: beat out. He wasn't really listened to his achievements and 232 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 1: accomplishments weren't really appreciated to the the level they deserved 233 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:37,560 Speaker 1: to be. So he went to work in Manchester, oddly 234 00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:41,360 Speaker 1: enough as the deputy director even though there was no 235 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:46,080 Speaker 1: director of the program. Kind of a strange little detail there. Yeah, 236 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:49,160 Speaker 1: but he designed the programming system of the Ferronti Mark one, 237 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 1: the first commercially available digital electronic computer. So hopefully that 238 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:57,000 Speaker 1: was a little solace for him. Consolation programs. Yeah. Um. 239 00:13:57,080 --> 00:13:59,560 Speaker 1: And it was also during his time at Manchester that 240 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:03,800 Speaker 1: Turing started to hypothesize about what would later be known 241 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,080 Speaker 1: as artificial intelligence. And and I thought it was it 242 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: was interesting, and this is something that's kind of, I guess, 243 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:13,400 Speaker 1: difficult for me to talk about with my limited knowledge 244 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 1: of computer programming and science. I just work on a computer. 245 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:20,360 Speaker 1: I don't know what happens inside. But I was impressed 246 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: that Um, even though he had he had the skill 247 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 1: to work on developing this field, he put the machine 248 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:30,800 Speaker 1: to use right away, so I'm sure he was still 249 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,480 Speaker 1: considering about how it could be advanced. But he started 250 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: looking for ways to use the Ferronti mark one, which 251 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:38,560 Speaker 1: I thought was was pretty neat. Yeah. It kind of 252 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:41,120 Speaker 1: went back to his old interest in the connection between 253 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:44,440 Speaker 1: mind and matter. And in nineteen fifty Touring wrote a 254 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: paper called Computing, Machinery and Intelligence in the journal Mind. 255 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,880 Speaker 1: In it, he proposed something called an imitation test. Today 256 00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:56,800 Speaker 1: that's called the Turing test, and the test basically provided 257 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,560 Speaker 1: a way to judge the intelligence of a machine without 258 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: bio us so an interrogator, for example, would sit in 259 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:06,720 Speaker 1: an isolated room from two subjects, one a person, one 260 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:10,320 Speaker 1: a machine, and the interrogator would ask them both questions 261 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:13,200 Speaker 1: and if the interrogator couldn't tell who was who, then 262 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:17,400 Speaker 1: that meant the machine was thinking. Yeah, it had intelligence 263 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: in some definable way. And Turing even predicted he had 264 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:24,320 Speaker 1: a lot of confidence in computers. He predicted that by 265 00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: the year two thousand, a computer would be so good 266 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:32,280 Speaker 1: at this game this, this uh Turing test, an interrogator 267 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,480 Speaker 1: would not have more than a seventy percent chance of 268 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:39,400 Speaker 1: correctly identifying who is who after five minutes. And that 269 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:44,359 Speaker 1: is a very ambitious goal because according to Encyclopedia Britannica, 270 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:48,480 Speaker 1: no computer today has even come close to that standard. 271 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: But Turing really he did have a lot of hopes 272 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:55,760 Speaker 1: for computers. Yeah. He also hypothesized that one day, quote, 273 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:58,440 Speaker 1: ladies would take their computers for walks in the park 274 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: and tell each other, my little computer said such a 275 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: funny thing in the morning. I think we're a little 276 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 1: closer to that one than the seventy goal. Maybe I 277 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: don't know. I still like my doggy though. Yeah. So 278 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,720 Speaker 1: Turn continued to study artificial intelligence, but also stuff like 279 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:17,920 Speaker 1: biological growth with the FRONTI Mark one I said that 280 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: he really did put that machine to good use, and 281 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:24,080 Speaker 1: his career was expanding into these different subject areas and 282 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:27,200 Speaker 1: his recognition was also growing. He was elected as a 283 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:30,320 Speaker 1: Fellow of the Royal Society of London in March nineteen 284 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: fifty one. That's another really prestigious honor. He was appointed 285 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:38,440 Speaker 1: to Readership in the Theory of Computing at Manchester, which 286 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,840 Speaker 1: sounds like a very modern title. But in nineteen fifty 287 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: two things took a turn for the worse in his 288 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: life after a break in in his Manchester home and 289 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:51,400 Speaker 1: he told the police that he thought the burglar was 290 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: probably connected to a man he was quote having an 291 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:58,000 Speaker 1: affair with, and he had been pretty open about his 292 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: sexuality since college. During his Letchley Park days, he had 293 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:05,160 Speaker 1: proposed to a colleague, Joan Clark, but broke it off 294 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,359 Speaker 1: he told her that he was gay and couldn't marry her. 295 00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:11,520 Speaker 1: But being so frank with the police in this way 296 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:14,680 Speaker 1: was really dangerous because at the time homosexuality was a 297 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:18,600 Speaker 1: felony in Great Britain, and so Turing was tried and 298 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:23,040 Speaker 1: convicted of gross indecency and he was faced with a 299 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:27,320 Speaker 1: really terrible choice. Yeah, His two choices were prison or 300 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:31,919 Speaker 1: hormone injections of estrogen, so chemical sterilization. Yeah, and he 301 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,840 Speaker 1: chose the latter and also lost his security clearance as 302 00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:39,639 Speaker 1: a result. So no government codes, no government computers. And 303 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: on June seven, ninety four, he was found dead by 304 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,520 Speaker 1: his housekeeper with a partially eaten cyanide laced apple by 305 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:50,440 Speaker 1: his side. Now, some have theorized that he was assassinated 306 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:53,480 Speaker 1: as a security risk, but it's pretty much widely accepted 307 00:17:53,480 --> 00:17:56,600 Speaker 1: nowadays that Turing committed suicide, and even then, right, and 308 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,040 Speaker 1: it's also accepted that Turing did kill himself in this 309 00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:03,480 Speaker 1: particular way, so that it would allow his mother to 310 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:06,560 Speaker 1: interpret the situation as an accident, since he'd been working 311 00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 1: with cyanide and other chemicals in his work. Yea, so 312 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:11,560 Speaker 1: she thought that he had some cyanide on his hands 313 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:15,680 Speaker 1: and he ate an apple and accidentally poisoned himself. But uh, 314 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:19,639 Speaker 1: assuming he did commit suicide, which is what most people assume, 315 00:18:19,760 --> 00:18:24,959 Speaker 1: it's a really tragic end to to this great life 316 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:35,840 Speaker 1: and and at the heels of this terrible prosecution. So 317 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:39,720 Speaker 1: in two thousand nine, Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a 318 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,320 Speaker 1: formal apology for the British Government's treatment of Touring, and 319 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:46,160 Speaker 1: I'm going to read just part of it. He said, 320 00:18:46,359 --> 00:18:49,720 Speaker 1: Touring truly was one of those individuals we can point 321 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,560 Speaker 1: to whose unique contribution it helped to turn the tide 322 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,199 Speaker 1: of war. The dead of gratitude he's owed makes it 323 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:57,959 Speaker 1: all the more horrifying. Therefore, that he was treated so 324 00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:01,120 Speaker 1: inhumanely on the behalf of the British government and all 325 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:04,400 Speaker 1: those who live freely thanks to Alan's work, I'm very 326 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,359 Speaker 1: proud to say we're sorry. You deserve so much better. 327 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:10,800 Speaker 1: So two thousand twelve is Alan Turing Year, and a 328 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 1: state side recognition has been longstanding. The US Association for 329 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:18,120 Speaker 1: Computer Machinery has given out the Touring Awards since nineteen 330 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:22,240 Speaker 1: sixty six, and if anything, as technology develops in new 331 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,720 Speaker 1: areas of steady emerge, Alan Turing will probably just become 332 00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:27,960 Speaker 1: more recognized as the years go on. Yeah, if you 333 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 1: think about how many career descriptions that apply to his name, 334 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:35,520 Speaker 1: you know, father of artificial intelligence, that sort of thing 335 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:38,600 Speaker 1: that didn't exist when he was alive. We can only 336 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 1: imagine that more will be added over the years as 337 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:52,560 Speaker 1: science and technology advances. Thank you so much for joining 338 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:55,560 Speaker 1: us for this Saturday classic. Since this is out of 339 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,080 Speaker 1: the archive, if you heard an email address or a 340 00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:00,679 Speaker 1: Facebook U r L or something similar are during the 341 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:03,439 Speaker 1: course of the show, that may be obsolete now, so 342 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 1: here's our current contact information. We are at history Podcasts 343 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:09,359 Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com, and then we're at 344 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,879 Speaker 1: missed in the History. All over social media that is 345 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:17,400 Speaker 1: our name on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram. Thanks 346 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:22,720 Speaker 1: again for listening. For more on this and thousands of 347 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:33,200 Speaker 1: other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.