The life of alan turing, and turing machine

Everytime when I am on the subway train, it is hard to see people who are not using smartphone. The world without smartphone is not imaginable anymore. There is a history for world to be shaped in this way, which is not that long but also not that short. Through the movie ‘ The Imitation Game’, people got to know about Alan Turing. Alan Turing is the mathematician who first thought of machine that can think by itself. Thinking of something new and that idea to be get accepted by the public is not easy. I became interested in Alan Turing’s life as he is one of the influential person who led the world with IT, Information Technology.

Alan Turing was different from the childhood. He did not have a proper family background as his father had to work oversea from his birth. He was often raised by others, so he became too introverted without sociality. (B1, 198) When he was in English public school, Sherbourne, the headmaster of the school recognized Turing’s talent and said that he might be wasting his time in the school. (1) His level of thinking was much different from his classmates, and he was not social person who could to interact with people actively. In his alone life, Turing met a friend, Christopher Morcom, who get to become closest could work together and share his idea. Not only as a friend, this was the first time he started to get idea of his identity as homosexual. He loved Morcom so much as a beloved friend and was his first lover, but Morcom died after few years. (2) He suffered from Morcom’s death, but he thought that Morcom would look upon him so he changed his attitude towards people and study hard. Morcom remained in Turing as symbol of perfection in his entire life (B1 200). Their visible connection did last even later as he was awarded the ‘ Morcom Prize for science’ which was donated by Christopher’s parents for his outstanding achievement. (B2 164) Alan Turing’s most famous and main achievement was accomplished during the World War II. Based on the knowledge he gained in his studies, he worked part time in British cryptanalytic department privately. Few years later when the war was declared by Britain in 1939, he took the full time doing cryptanalysis at Bletchley Park. (4) He had the team with the one main goal which was to break the Enigma code. This Enigma was the enciphering machine used by the German army to communicate securely. Once, it was cracked by the poles, however, German increased its security by changing the system every day which made Britain to take long time to understand the code.(6) From mid-1941, Turing worked whole day to figure out how to interpret the German messages. (4) As the keys were changing everyday, human’s speed to figure out the key for the day was barely possible. Turing thought of involving an electronic technology to follow up the speed, which was the starting of machine called Turing machine.

Turing knew that algorithm is usually defined as serial rules that can be followed in the correct mechanical way. He thought of machine to replace people to do this basic operation more accurately and quickly. (B1 205) Based on the analysis of Turing on the concept of calculation, it can be concluded as anything that can be calculated by any algorithmic process can be calculated by a Turing machine. (B1 210) For Turing machine to be exist, only three simple operation should be worked: change the symbols in a square you are reading, move one space to the left or right, and change the possible state. (B1 211) Alan Turing’s invention, Turing machine, is highly recognized by the world. His invention is called as Universal Turing Machine, and every computer science major students learn about him. His name cannot be removed from the area of computer science. Even the awards for the computer scientists are named after him, Turing Award. (5) Nowadays, he is famous person in the area of mathematics, his end was not so happy. He was accused for homosexuality which was an illegal act. He died in mental hospital when he was just aged 41, known as Cyanide poisoning which is considered as suicide. Only his mother denied his suicide as he was always followed behind by a plainclothesman. (B2 170) Alan Turing’s mysterious death is not clearly identified until now, but he is considered father of computer science todays. His new approach to make the machine to replace human made it possible to end the World War II.

Work Cited

1. https://www. macs. hw. ac. uk/~foss/valentin/Alan_Turning. html
2. http://www-groups. dcs. st-and. ac. uk/history/Biographies/Turing. html
3. https://www. thefamouspeople. com/profiles/alan-turing-4223. php
4. https://www. livescience. com/29483-alan-turing. html
5. http://blog. castac. org/2015/03/how-influential-was-turing/
6. https://www. iwm. org. uk/history/how-alan-turing-cracked-the-enigma-code
7. (B1) 수학자 컴퓨터를 만들다
   (B2) 천재 수학자들의 영광과 좌절