“Alan Turing: Codebreaker, Visionary, Enigma” – with Andrew Hodges

SpyCast

Summary

Andrew Hodges (Website, Wikipedia) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the life and work of Alan Turing. Andrew is an emeritus senior research fellow of mathematics at the University of Oxford.

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• Turing’s early foundations for artificial intelligence
• Interwar cryptanalysis
• Bletchley Park, Hut 8, and British Naval Intelligence
• The mechanics of the Bombe machine

Reflections

• Legacy changing alongside social history
• The weight and pressure of genius

And much, much more …

Quotes of the Week

“Everything that you do with the digital, everything that we're doing now through these computers, flows from his perceptions. And that in turn came through his practical experience during the Second World War on breaking the enemy codes.” – Andrew Hodges .

Resources

SURFACE SKIM

*SpyCasts*

• The Real Ian Fleming with Nicholas Shakespeare (2024)
• ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: “The D-Day Deception” – with National WWII Museum Curator Corey Graff (2023)
• Hitler’s Trojan Horse – Nazi Intelligence with Nigel West (2023)
• How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Spy Game with Mike Susong (2023)

*Beginner Resources*

• Alan Turing, B.J. Copeland, Britannica (2024) [Short biography]
• How Did the Enigma Machine Work? Science Museum Group, YouTube (2019) [2 min. video]
• How Alan Turing Cracked the Enigma Code, Imperial War Museum (n.d.) [Short article]

DEEPER DIVE

Books

• The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, J. D. Turing (Arcturus, 2020)
• Turing’s Vision: The Birth of Computer Science, C. Bernhardt (MIT Press, 2017)
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, A. Hodges (Burnett Books/Hutchinson, 1983)

Primary Sources

• Alan Turing Obituary and Tributes (1954)
• Can digital computers think? (1951)
• Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)
• Proposed electronic calculator (1946)
• Turing’s Treatise on the Enigma (1939-1942)
• On Computable Numbers (1936)

*Wildcard Resource*

• Alan Turing’s School Report Card
• Didn’t do very well in high school? Neither did Alan Turing. Amongst hopeful comments about his promising skills in mathematics, teachers noted Turing’s carelessness and severe lack of neatness in his work.

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