Alan Turing: An Individual of the Twentieth Century - A. Hodges - 5/21/2015

Talk abstract:

Alan Turing (1912-1954) was the founder of modern computer science and the chief scientific cryptographer of the Second World War.

Andrew Hodges, PhD, is the author of "Alan Turing: The Enigma," upon which the Academy Award-winning (Adapted Screenplay) "The Imitation Game," is based. Hodges offers the words of Walt Whitman referenced in his biography of Turing as a preview for this lecture: "One's-self I sing—a simple, separate Person; / Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse."

In this talk, Hodges—Senior Research Fellow and Tutor in Mathematics at Wadham College, University of Oxford— described some of the achievements that made Turing a very singular individual, but one caught up in the great sweep of twentieth-century science and history.

Produced in association with Caltech Academic Media Technologies. © 2015 California Institute of Technology

[Ozymandi_as]

A remarkable insight into the genius and humanity of Turing, from someone uniquely gifted with the intellect and humanity to understand him. The crappiness of the videography cannot detract from the brilliance of Hodges' appreciation.

[eblechman]

Brilliant lecture delivered by a most informed, intelligent and humane person. Unfortunately, Caltech did not have a camera focused on (or indeed, merely directed towards) the slides Dr Hodges was referring to. Dr Hodges was most erudite and his much appreciated humility further enhanced the presentation.

[MrDaiseymay]

FANTASTIC--I just cannot understand why Andrew Hodges, having written Turings biography, in the most detailed but understandable way, then sold the writes to the film company, who then produced that ludicrous junk ''The Immitation Game''.

[julianadams]

Great speaker, great subject. Poor presentation on the part of Cal Tech, however. It would be nice to know what Prof. Hodges was looking at during the talk.

[SunDragMeHere]

any chance there's a link to the slide file?