Breaking the Code: The Enigma of Alan Turing
British mathematician Alan Turing broke the German military’s prized Enigma cipher in World War II, created the foundations of modern computer science, and pioneered the fields of artificial intelligence (“Can Machines Think?”). Turing was arrested for homosexuality and forced to undergo hormone treatments which may have led to his apparent suicide by cyanide poisoning. His brilliant achievements and tragic death have been the subject of biographies, essays, plays, novels, and films. In this course we will explore the life, times, and works of this remarkable individual and consider how Turing would view the current state of artificial intelligence. 3 hrs. sem./screening