the British Cryptanalysis Department – a Government school dedicated to encoding and encryption. During the Second World War he was offered the opportunity to apply his theories; as a commander of a division of the British Intelligence. He continued work on both the processes and the machines that were to be known as bombe, which allowed for the deciphering of encrypted Nazi codes and machines. Among these was of course the Nazi Enigma machine which contained messages from the 3rd Reich, and provided information that gained the allies a valuable tactical advantage. After the war he developed one of the first electronic computers: The Automatic Computing Engine (ACE), in the National Laboratory of Physics in the United Kingdom. Shortly thereafter he worked on the Manchester Mark I, recognized as one of the first real computers. In these subsequent years Turing’s work with computers deepened greatly, and he established the theoretical template that would define whether a computer had the capability to think like a Human – a forerunner to what is now referred to as Artificial Intelligence. The ‘Turing Test’ also made significant contribu29
tions to other branches of applied mathematics; such as Biology.
Recently published research that has used Turing’s theory as a template, has offered information into the correlation of a Leopard’s spots or the stripes of a Tiger. An almost mathematical sequence that shows how the parameters - such as the darker markings - are used for ‘producing’ different substances wheras the ochre or opposing colour(s) inhibit or ‘control’ what produces these substances. It sounds like a random process but it is not. Turing’s career was emphatically cut-short however when, in 1952, he went to the Police to report a burglary that had taken place at his own home – perpetrated by his own lover and an accomplice. It was then that his homosexuality emerged, and he was prosecuted and sentenced for ‘grave impropriety’ and ‘sexual perversion’. He was told he could choose between jail and chemical castration. Turing chose the second option, which resulted in significant physical and emotional consequences. For a year they injected him with estrogen to “reduce libido” – a process which worked – and dramati-