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> Yeah I agree, I assume this is actually the main reason he is so well known and celebrated today. Mere obsession with computers would make Godel, Alonso Churc

by edanm 7y ago

> Yeah I agree, I assume this is actually the main reason he is so well known and celebrated today. Mere obsession with computers would make Godel, Alonso Church, and others with equivalent models of computation just as famous. I absolutely disagree. For one thing, Turing didn't just invent a model of computation - he invented what is seen, in some sense, to be the precursor to the actual, physical computer (the Turing Machine). But more importantly, in addition to doing that, he actually built one of the first actual computers. And he did that in order to break the German encryption in WW2. I am a huge fan of Godel's work, don't get me wrong, but Alan Turing was far more important in world history, and indeed in math/science history (though Godel is of course hugely important too).

throw0101a 7y ago
While Turing did practical crypto work during WW2, I think Tutte's work on the Lorenz cipher was more impressive: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Tutte#Second_World_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Tutte#Second_World_War * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_cipher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_ci... Everyone talks about Enigma during WW2, but the Poles had mostly figured things out pre-War (for which they're generally forgotten), and it was largely a matter of brute forcing things during the War IMHO.
- brighter2morrow 7y ago
  Yes but traditionally the media has not portrayed poles positively.
twic 7y ago
> But more importantly, in addition to doing that, he actually built one of the first actual computers. And he did that in order to break the German encryption in WW2. Not quite. He built the Bombe, which was not a computer. Elsewhere at Bletchley Park, other people built Colossus, one of the earliest electronic computing machines - but still not a computer, really, as it had no program. After the war, the first computer was built in Manchester, and although Turing was around, and it was clearly based in part on his ideas, my understanding is that he wasn't directly involved with building it. I think it's Turing's dual role in laying the theoretical foundation of computing and winning World War 2 that made him famous. I don't think his tragic death has made him more famous; if anything, it delayed his fame - imagine how well-known he would have been if he'd lived on into the computer age! Not a BBC documentary would go by without photos of Turing looking seriously at an ICL 2900, Turing sat at a BBC Model B, an elderly Turing and a thirtysomething Tim Berners-Lee mugging at the camera, etc.
- edanm 7y ago
  You are, of course, completely correct. I was simplifying for the sake of the post. > I don't think his tragic death has made him more famous; if anything, it delayed his fame - I agree! I was very tempted to answer the parent by saying that Turing isn't very famous. I don't think most people have heard of him, or at least, hadn't 10 years ago. The movie coming out helped, I imagine.
  - brighter2morrow 7y ago
    The Nobel Prize equivalent of Computer Science is called "The Turing Award" and has been coming out since the 1960's (and no Turing didn't find them in the same way Alfred Nobel funded the Nobel Prize)
DoreenMichele 7y ago
While he was in the military, the work of his unit was so secret that other units called them "the do nothings." So while it may not be true that the lurid nature of his demise is the reason in a "people like to rubberneck" kind of way, his death at an early age is likely part of why the world knows of his work. Many crypto experts worked secretly for the government and lived and died in obscurity. Being famous for your work (while still working) and doing secret work tend to be mutually exclusive.

by edanm 7y ago

throw0101a 7y ago

While Turing did practical crypto work during WW2, I think Tutte's work on the Lorenz cipher was more impressive: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Tutte#Second_World_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Tutte#Second_World_War * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_cipher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_ci... Everyone talks about Enigma during WW2, but the Poles had mostly figured things out pre-War (for which they're generally forgotten), and it was largely a matter of brute forcing things during the War IMHO.

brighter2morrow 7y ago
Yes but traditionally the media has not portrayed poles positively.

twic 7y ago

> But more importantly, in addition to doing that, he actually built one of the first actual computers. And he did that in order to break the German encryption in WW2. Not quite. He built the Bombe, which was not a computer. Elsewhere at Bletchley Park, other people built Colossus, one of the earliest electronic computing machines - but still not a computer, really, as it had no program. After the war, the first computer was built in Manchester, and although Turing was around, and it was clearly based in part on his ideas, my understanding is that he wasn't directly involved with building it. I think it's Turing's dual role in laying the theoretical foundation of computing and winning World War 2 that made him famous. I don't think his tragic death has made him more famous; if anything, it delayed his fame - imagine how well-known he would have been if he'd lived on into the computer age! Not a BBC documentary would go by without photos of Turing looking seriously at an ICL 2900, Turing sat at a BBC Model B, an elderly Turing and a thirtysomething Tim Berners-Lee mugging at the camera, etc.

edanm 7y ago
You are, of course, completely correct. I was simplifying for the sake of the post. > I don't think his tragic death has made him more famous; if anything, it delayed his fame - I agree! I was very tempted to answer the parent by saying that Turing isn't very famous. I don't think most people have heard of him, or at least, hadn't 10 years ago. The movie coming out helped, I imagine.
- brighter2morrow 7y ago
  The Nobel Prize equivalent of Computer Science is called "The Turing Award" and has been coming out since the 1960's (and no Turing didn't find them in the same way Alfred Nobel funded the Nobel Prize)

DoreenMichele 7y ago

While he was in the military, the work of his unit was so secret that other units called them "the do nothings." So while it may not be true that the lurid nature of his demise is the reason in a "people like to rubberneck" kind of way, his death at an early age is likely part of why the world knows of his work. Many crypto experts worked secretly for the government and lived and died in obscurity. Being famous for your work (while still working) and doing secret work tend to be mutually exclusive.