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?”) and neural networks. Turing was later arrested for homosexuality and forced to undergo hormone treatments that may have led to his apparent suicide by cyanide poisoning. His brilliant achievements and tragic death has been the subject of biographies, essays, plays, novels, and films. In September 2009, the British government apologized for its "appalling" treatment of Turing. In this course we will explore the life and works of this remarkable individual.