Movies can make light of the lesser known, but perhaps the most important, stories.
In the case of Alan Turing, "The Imitation Game" gives a brighter light to the accomplishments of a scientist that altered world history. For those of you who haven't seen "The Imitation Game," I highly suggest it. The movie has recently came out on Netflix. For those who want to watch, there are spoilers ahead.
In a nut shell, this movie is about Alan Turing, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, and how he built a machine, known as The Bombe (called "Christopher" in the movie), that broke the code the Nazi code, Enigma, during World War II. The movie also highlighted the fact that Turning was homosexual in a time where people were arrested in England for being as such.
Turing was educated at the University of Cambridge, after which, he published a paper called "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem (Decision Problem)," which gave him the background leading to his future accomplishments. He obtained a Ph.D. from Princeton University.
Turing was a part of a British top secret plan to crack Enigma at Bletchley Park, which was the setting for most of the movie. Most of the movie was the team trying to crack the code, but remaining unsuccessful until Turing realized a crucial component to the German code.
The movie calls the machine Christopher because of someone in Turing's past; however, the name of the machine was actually called The Bombe. According to the Bletchley Park website, The Bombe "ran through all the possible Enigma wheel configurations in order to reduce the possible number of settings in use to a manageable number for further hand testing."
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park were decoding about 39,000 intercepted messages each month, a figure that rose subsequently to more than 84,000 per month—two messages every minute, day and night."
According to the end credits of the movie, "Historians estimate that breaking Enigma shortened the war by more than two years, saving over 14 million lives."
After the war, Turing's career went on. He went to develop Automative Computing Engine (ACE), designed an input output system, wrote the first ever programming manual and more.
His homosexuality was discovered and he was charged with "gross indecency." He then was given a choice by the British government: go to prison or take a hormonal treatment for libido reduction, also called chemical castration. He chose the later.
A year later, he committed suicide in 1954 at the age of 41.
According to the movie, "In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted Turing a posthumous royal pardon, honoring his unprecedented achievements."
Being a history buff, I'm sad to say I have never heard of Turing until now. The Imitation Game, shed some light on the work and life of a man far ahead of his time.
