Breaking the Code: The Enigma of Alan Turing
British mathematician Alan Turing broke the Nazis' prized Enigma cipher in World War II, created the foundations of 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. He died by cyanide poisoning at a relatively young age. His brilliant achievements and tragic death have been the subject of biographies, essays, plays, novels, and films, most recently the Academy Award winning The Imitation Game. We will explore the life and works of this remarkable individual in the context of the war and its aftermath. 3 hrs. sem./screening