Breaking the Code: The Enigma of Alan Turing
British mathematician Alan Turing broke the Nazis prized Enigma cipher, created the foundations of modern computer science, and pioneered the fields of artificial intelligence (“Can Machines Think?”) and neural networks. Turing was arrested for homosexuality and forced to undergo hormone treatments perhaps leading to his apparent suicide by cyanide poisoning. The British government only recently apologized for its "appalling" treatment of Turing. His brilliant achievements and tragic death are the subject of biographies, essays, plays, novels, and films. We will explore the life and works of this remarkable individual which will be celebrated throughout 2012, the centennial of his birth. (This course is not open to students who have taken FYSE 1280)