Alan Turing

The Famous Cryptographer Who Broke the Nazi Enigma Code

By: Kelly Mass

Narrated by: Chris Newman

Alan Mathison Turing was a mathematician, computer system researcher, scholar, cryptanalyst, thinker, and theoretical biologist from the U.K. With the Turing device, which can be considered a design of a general-purpose computer system, Turing had a substantial influence on the development of theoretical computer technology, offering a formalization of the ideas of algorithm and calculation. Turing is considered the creator of theoretical computer technology and AI.

Turing was born in Maida Vale, London, and raised in the south of England. He earned a mathematics degree from King's College, Cambridge. He released a presentation suggesting that some simple math-- no questions can never ever be replied by computer system while a fellow at Cambridge, built a Turing device, and went on to reason that the Turing device's stopping issue is undecidable.

He got his PhD from Princeton University's Department of Mathematics in 1938. Turing worked for the Federal government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking center where Ultra intelligence was developed, throughout WWII. He led Hut 8, the area in charge of German navy cryptanalysis, for a time. Here, he developed some methods for breaking German ciphers quicker, including but not limited to adjustments to the pre-war Polish bombe gadget, an electromechanical system that could recognize Enigma device settings.

Turing contributed to analyzing obstructed coded signals that permitted the Allies to beat the Axis powers in some crucial fights, including but not limited to the Battle of the Atlantic.

A movie has been made about him, called the Imitation Game. Let’s find out the real truth that doesn’t become obvious through this Hollywood production, the background of this conflicted but powerful genius.

©2022 Kelly Mass (P)2023 Kelly Mass