Turing and the Computer: The Big Idea [Paperback]

Paul Strathern (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 1999 | Series: Big Idea

Turing and the Computer offers an encapsulation of the groundwork that led to the invention of the computer as we know it and an absorbing account of the man who helped develop it. Eccentric and principled, Alan Turing would lay aside a brilliant career in mathematics to serve his country by breaking German codes during the Second World War. Openly homosexual, he would later be put on trial on indecency charges and forced to undergo hormone treatments that wrecked his body and his spirit. But the modern machine he helped create lives on. Just a few of the big ideas included in this riveting book are how Turing mapped out the theory of computers before a single computer had been conceived, how Turing's Colossus broke the German Enigma codes, and Turing's proof of the existence of artificial intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Few concepts in the history of 20th-century thought are as rich with both philosophical and practical implications as the computer. And few people in the history of computing are as intellectually and personally complex as Alan Turing, the man whose brilliant mathematical imagination laid the foundation for computers as we know them. You could easily spend the rest of the millennium reading up on Turing and his ideas, but if you've only got an afternoon, this engaging, pamphlet-length summary of the man's life and work should get you nicely up to speed.

Author Paul Strathern sets Turing's accomplishments in their historical context. He starts with the long prehistory of the computer--its roots in devices such as the abacus, the slide rule, and Charles Babbage's remarkably sophisticated 19th-century "difference engine." Strathern then moves deftly through the great mathematical debates that led to Turing's formulation of the abstract "universal computing machine" in the mid-1930s. The author also lucidly presents Turing's contributions to turning that abstraction into a concrete mechanism, beginning with Turing's work on the Colossus machine, which cracked Germany's secret codes during World War II.

Strathern conveys with equal vividness the haunted private side of Turing's life--his furtive homosexuality, his difficult relationships, and his conviction in the early '50s on charges of indecency, a not-so-private scandal that apparently led to his suicide. The book owes its rich detail to the work of pioneering Turing biographer Alan Hodges, and Strathern graciously acknowledges the debt. But the accomplishment of packing Turing's big life and big ideas into such a compact package is entirely Strathern's own. --Julian Dibbell

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor books ed edition (April 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038549243X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385492430
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,619,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( T ) > Turing, Alan
  • #33 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Environmental Science
  • #35 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Environmental Science

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good appetizer, March 31, 2000

By 

I. Martinez-Ybor "Ignacio Martínez-Ybor" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Turing and the Computer: The Big Idea (Paperback)

This little book offers a quick overview of the history of the computer until eventually settling on Alan Turing and his paramount contributions. Obviously it is not meant to be exhaustive but it opens up a menu of topics to be followed if one is interested, all circling around Turing: computer theory, mathematics and the solution of cryptographical problems, Bletchley Park's contribution to winning WorldWarII, artificial intelligence, mathematical theory, mid-20th century persecution of homosexuals in Britain, eccentricity and the nature of genius, the very peculiar personality of Turing himself. It's a little book that explains some basics and opens many doors, for which one has to be grateful.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Computer Journalism, March 6, 2003

By 

V C Mueller (Thessaloniki, Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turing and the Computer: The Big Idea (Paperback)

If you want to read about Turing and the origins of computing on the level and in the style of your Sunday newspaper, this is your book (especially if that Sunday newspaper of yours comes in tabloid format). Otherwise, go for something more intelligent, like A. Hodges, Davies or Copeland.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice biography, but not technical enough, November 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Turing and the Computer: The Big Idea (Paperback)

This book gives a short overview over the life of Alan Turing, though it does not go as deep into detail as Douglas Hofstaedter does - and that was just one article in his Metamagicum collection! But if you don't already have Hofstaedter on your bookshelf, you might as well buy this book.

Unfortunately, the mathematical and technical stuff in the book are only described very vaguely - I did not understand how the Enigma code was cracked, or how the proofs concerning computability worked. I am not quite sure whether the author understood what he was writing about.