Alan

Turing Biography.com
Quick Facts
Mathematician, logician,
cryptographer, Inventor, philosopher
Name: Alan Turing
(19121954)
Nationality: British
Article Editor: Zheng Liu
Occupation: Mathematician, Issued Date: November 10th, 2017

Cryptographer, Philosopher
Synopsis
Birth: June 23, 1912
Alan Turing was a British mathematician and
Death: June 7, 1954
cryptographer who had made limitless contributions to the world
Education: Kings College
during World War II and throughout his life. On June 23rd, 1912,
(University of Cambridge),
London, Alan Turing was born, but was found dead in his
Princeton University.
apartment in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, and was

reported at that time as killed by cyanide poisoning planned by

himself. Tragically, his sacrifice and his name were unmentioned

until 55 years after his death when British Prime Minister Gordon

Brown proclaimed an official and national apology for Alan

Turing in 2009.

Early Life
When Alan Turing was still a kid under 10 years old, he

had been discovered by his teacher that he has talents and high

intelligence. At the age of 13, when Turing attended Sherborne

School, a well-known historical independent boys school in

 United Kingdom, he began to find himself interested in studying

math and science.

After graduated from Sherborne School in 1930, he entered

Kings College, which is acquired by University of Cambridge

today, for further study and research.

In 1936, Turings first well-known accomplishment was

Kings College
established when he published a research paper named On

Computable Number, which contains the concepts and ideas that

later became the cornerstone of modern computer science and

inspired the invention of the first computer of the world.

For the following two years, Turing continued his studies

of mathematics and sciences and one of the top institutions,

Princeton University, and returned to his hometown in 1938.

Cryptographer and World War II

Soon after Turing returned to the Britain, he was requested

by the governments agents to participate in the secret code-

breaking organization located in Bletchley Park. One of the

primary mission for Alan Turing during the war period was to

decode Nazis code, which was once the most complicated and

unattainable goal for the Allies since the Germans invented a

*The Enigma Machine machine, Enigma, that had quintillions of potential settings of

code hence was impossible for any machines, calculators and

mankind to crack before 1940s.

 Alan Turing, however, cooperated with another code-

breaker Gordon Welchman and invented the machine, Bombe,

that helps cryptographers to accurately calculate the Enigmas

settings and understand the secret messages sent among German

Forces.

*Turings Bombe Machine In 1950, shortly after the end of World War II, Alan Turing

drafted another influential and crucial paper Computing

machinery and intelligence, which is believed to be the initial

concept of todays Artificial Intelligence.

Guilt and Mishap

January 1952, after a reported break-in incident of

Turings house, two polices came to Turings house for

inspection. However, besides finding the clues of the break-in

criminal, the two police found out a fact that Alan Turing had a

sexual relationship with a 19-year-old boy Arnold Murray, who

was also the criminal that broke into his house and stole his

properties. Nevertheless, compare to the steal, homosexuality was

*Movie: The Imitation Game a more severe crime in 1950s Britain, and hence Alan Turing

was soon arrested by the two policemen. According to the court,

Alan Turing had to make a decision between imprisonment for 2

years or acquire chemical treatment which consistently that was

believed to decline ones libido but gains the bail. Alan Turing

believed that if he wastes 2 years in jail, lots of research would be

 cut down and terminated; therefore, he accepted to input estrogen

hormone into his body for an entire year.

Alan Turing was devastated not only by the unimaginable

impacts of the chemicals to his body, but also by the loss of his

work. Due to the conviction, Alan Turing was prohibited from

continue working as mathematician, scientist and cryptographer at

*A blue heritage plaque placed in Government Code & Cypher School (Now called: Government
front of Turings former house
Communications Head Quarter).

Tragedy was found on June 7, 1954. 16 days before

Turings 42nd birthday, Turing was found died in his house and

was recorded as a suicide caused by the cyanide poison on the

apple next to his body.

After Death
Years after Alan Turings death, the government has

admitted Turings great contribution to the society. In 2004,

Princeton University named Alan Turing as the second most

essential alumni in schools history which was one place behind

James Madison. In 2007, a bronze statue of Alan Turing was

established at Bletchley Park, where was once Turings battle. In

2009, on behalf of the nation, British prime minister Gordon

Brown gave an official apology to Alan Turing for declaring his

homosexuality as a guilt in mid 20th century.

Fact Check

Please contact the author of this biography if you notice any lack of accuracy, fairness,

and objectivity. Thank you for your concerns and advice.

Contact Information: [email protected]

Citations

Alan Turing. Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 10 July 2017,

www.biography.com/people/alan-turing-9512017.

Andrew. Alan Turing: the enigma. Vintage Books, 2012.

Bombe Codebreaking machine rear. Chronicles of a Designer, 12 July 2012,

iansmithblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/the-enigma-of-bletchley-park/bombe

codebreaking-machine-rear/.

F., Dwayne. Vintage Technology Obsessions. Enigma Machine - And other Ike museum

holdings, 1 Jan. 1970, vintagetechobsessions.blogspot.com/2014/04/enigma-machine

and-other-ike-museum.html.

Kate. How Alan Turing Cracked The Enigma Code. Imperial War Museums, 21 Jan. 2015,

www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-alan-turing-cracked-the-enigma-code.

New York Times, 4 Feb. 2015, paidpost.nytimes.com/the-weinstein-company/world-war-iis

greatest-hero-the-true-story-of-alan-turing.html#.WgTDvbaZPq0.Hodges,

Rp. Alan Turing granted posthumous pardon. So Cheshire, 7 Jan. 2014, www.so

cheshire.co.uk/heritage-1/9396/alan-turing-granted-posthumous-pardon.

World War IIs Greatest Hero: The True Story of Alan Turing. The New York Times, The

New York Times, 4 Feb. 2015, paidpost.nytimes.com/the-weinstein-company/world-war

iis-greatest-hero-the-true-story-of-alan-turing.html#.WgUfeRNSy9Z.
Zheng Liu

NUID#001261604

Professor Whittet

ENGW 1102

November 20th, 2017

Self-Assessment of Anan Turings Biography

If there are ones being left and forgotten, then there are ones who should be praised and

remembered. This mindset continues to grow as I found myself enjoying reading and reviewing

the history, which is the memory of the time that has been composed by individuals since we had

developed literature. Therefore, I decided to be a recorder, a recorder of a short piece of history,

a recorder of a single person, a recorder of an experience, a recorder of a life that belongs to no

one anymore but a literary work, and eventually my record became the biography of Alan

Turing, who was one of the greatest mathematician and cryptographer in mankinds history and

was also the one that was once forgotten by time.

According to the reference documents (2017), biography is a detailed description of a

notable persons life (p.3). Indeed, however, I did not recognize Alan Turing as a notable

person until I had the chance of encountering Andrew Hodges Alan Turing: The Enigma, which

is a book that describes Alan Turings life from his success of decoding Nazis Enigma Machine

to the end of his life, but what comes to my mind was not only the experience of this great figure

from half century ago, but also the fascinating art form that presents ones life with vivid pieces

of images that occur when reading it. However, either reading or composing this 700-page-

biography would be time-consuming and unrealistic for me as a recorder, or an author of a

biography. From that, I found that it is essential to find a carrier that would be practical and
efficient for me to fulfill my goal of publishing Alan Turings biography. Whereas

biography.com is a platform that offers numerous short biographies of different people from the

dissimilar period of history, I also consider it as a platform for me to perform the biography.

Regardless of publishing biographies on biography.com or other forms, biography has a

solid characteristic. According Luisa Passerinis academic analysis of biography Transforming

Biography: From the Claim of Objectivity to Intersubjective Plurality, biographies, although

may be compose by various writers from dissimilar backgrounds, cultures, and values, should be

consisted as fact basis documents that grant objectivities, which simultaneously functions as a

general agreement that compress the distances among audiences in worldwide (p.8). While

objectivity, as a feature of biography, contributes to making biography reliable and resonant for

readers, it is a difficulty for me as well. Although it is a fact that Alan Turing had made a

remarkable contribution to the world, there are still controversies or disagreement about him.

Considering objectivity, I thought carefully and consciously when choosing the words. For

instance, in the first paragraph of my performance document, I wrote Tragically, his sacrifice

and his name were unmentioned until 55 years after his death (p.1). Initially, I wanted to use

the word Ironically instead of Tragically since I considered this period of fact could be an

act of criticizing the stereotype that the society had during Turings age. Nonetheless, due to my

consideration of general agreement and objectivity, I used the word tragically to describes

Turings death which I assume would express a more acceptable tone for audiences that hold

divergent arguments.

Whereas the objectiveness of biography abridges the audiences and the protagonists, and

even the related history, formatting and contextualizing, on the other hand, was another

challenge for the authors. Comparing to those of another form of biographies, the format
requirements of biography.com limits the stance of the authors. One consequence led by this trait

is that the works, or biography, based on same or similar references to facts may result in an

alike structure, format, and context. In the reference documents, indicated that basic biographies

share a standard format (p.4). This barrier confused me as a contributor of biography.com

where the biographies posted have already formed in paradigms. Thus, the major alternatives

that I could make beyond the previously existed biographies were the focuses of events.

Apparently, no ones life could be described in several hours and pages, which gives the author

chances to develop and explore the unmentioned aspects of the person. For instances, I

accentuated the importance of Alan Turings invention Bombe to the success of the war,

whereas the original fact basis biography on biography.com focused more on Turings

contributions on computer science.

Despite the fact that I intended to select different pieces of Alan Turings experience in

order to generate a distinct biography from the existing one on biography.com, I remained some

of the traditions, or format, that applies to all the work contributed on this website. By observing

the biography.com, I recognized that at the bottom of each biography, there includes the section

Fact Check, where leaves a note along with the contributors contact information and allows

audiences provides suggestions and supervision over the biography that was published. Since

this section depicts the fact-based principle of biography, I followed it and proffer my personal

contact information at the end of my performance document leaving a note both meaning I

accept any supervision and functioning as a relatively convincing evidence that the biography is

well-researched, fact-based, and objective.

There are uncountable genres in the literature which I noticed, after practicing one of

them, that there are numberless methods of presenting them. Alan Turings biography on
biography.com was a simple and convenient way of exhibiting one literary work to the public,

whereas Alan Turing: The Enigma shows a more complex and detailed method. Although

there is a particular format on biography.com and the biography of same person shares same

facts and context among authors, I could still find the place that had not been developed or even

exploited. This brings me the confidence to identify my work as a unique and indispensable

writing, and this confidence applies to everyone who had arrived and past as the history come

and gone since everyone, although may share similar or same traits and experiences, is different

from each other just like every literary work. Alan Turing was a person that worth others writing

a biography about him, but so as anyone else. Every literary work, or every species, despite

falling into certain categories, in fact, is an exceptional piece of existence.

 References

Alan Turing. Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 10 July 2017,

www.biography.com/people/alan-turing-9512017.

Andrew. Alan Turing: the enigma. Vintage Books, 2012.

Ellen Karina Horn, Zhen Wei, Yiheng Hao &Yijia Zhang. Biography: Reference Document,

27 October 2017.

Passerini, L. (2000). Transforming Biography: From the Claim of Objectivity to Intersubjective

Plurality. Rethinking History,4(3), 413-416. doi:10.1080/136425200457083