“The Big Idea – Turing & the Computer” – A Review

So with ‘The Imitation Game’ fast approaching I notice many (myself included) have started taking a much more detailed interest into Alan Turing and his life and work.

Now as much as I would highly recommend “Alan Turing – The Enigma” the biography by Andrew Hodges (which I am enjoying immensely!) I know that not everyone would say their interest/time allowance etc. reaches the point where they are willing to dig into this very detailed 500 page book.

Recently I came across “The Big Idea – Turing & the Computer” by Paul Strathern, a much smaller and much quicker read, so I thought I’d give it a go to see if I’d recommend it to anyone just wanting a bit of a brief overview.

To address the good points first – the book is a nice easy read, no crazy complicated science or maths and any that is brought up is well explained. Also it does have a nice little chapter at the start entitled “The BC Era” focusing on the development of the computer up until we reach Turing’s life. Now I can’t account for the accuracy of these facts personally but since the author has a series of these books (other’s including “Einstein & Relativity”, “Hawking & Black Holes”, “Newton & Gravity” etc.) I have no reason to believe any of this information is incorrect.

It might seem strange that I make that point but it’s because – when it comes to the details of Alan’s life it is all very brief (as is most of the book) but as far as I know the details given are fairly accurate – it is when we reach the explanations of his work that my main issue arises.

When reading the small introduction one comes across the phrase “Turing also worked on the Colossus calculating machine, which cracked the German Enigma codes during the Second World War.”

This is NOT true. (Although upon doing some research to write this piece I found there is varying degrees of confusion around this topic in general, so it’s not uncommon that a mistake like this is made)

Basically: (and do feel free to correct me here I’m going by what I’ve very quickly learnt)

• The Colossus was created by Tommy Flowers with input from others.
• It was used to decipher German codes but the “Lorenz Cipher” not Enigma.
• The machine Turing built to crack Enigma was called “The Bombe”
• Turing’s work on the Bombe and ideas around cryptanalysis did contribute to the design of the Colossus but he did not construct it.
• (Also, I believe the Key for the Enigma Machine (at least the one with 3 rotors) was changed once a day, not 3 times a day as this book implies)

This is where the book basically starts confusing itself.

The Bombe is not once mentioned throughout this book as the author clearly seems to have it confused with Colossus. This then means that facts about the Bombe and about the actual Colossus start interweaving with one another. For example, the statements telling us Colossus began operating in 1943 and used vacuum tubes computing in binary are correct, but in other places it uses Colossus where the Bombe is clearly meant.

However, the book does take the correct path on another common misconception when it states Colossus is regarded as the first computer, as this title is often given to the American “ENIAC” machine. This confusion was mainly due to the details of Colossus being kept secret until later in the 20^th century.

So due to this rather….colossal mistake (*smug face* pun intended) being made clear within the first 2 pages it lead to me reading the rest of the book with a small degree of scepticism about the reliability of the facts.

I don’t mean to make out this book is awful, it’s not, and I think if you keep this post in mind it’s a pretty decent way to go if you want a brief overview – though at some points, maybe you are best consulting the internet.

The amazon link to “The Big Idea – Turing & the Computer” is HERE (of course there are other places available along with your regional amazon stores)

The “Further Reading” recommended in this book includes:

• Andrew Hodges: Alan Turing: the enigma (I’ve just realised actually what is printed here is “Alan Hodges”…oh dear…this book is in some serious need of proof-reading)
• David Bolter (at least I hope that’s his name): Turing’s Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age
• Joel Shurkin: Engines of the Mind

Also! I’ve not read this myself yet but from talking to friends I’d also like to add – Jack Copeland:  Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age where I believe more information on Colossus is addressed.

Written by Jess5_11 on 29 September 2014. 1 comment »
Category: Books, History
Tags: Alan Turing, book review, paul strathern, the big idea turing & the computer, The Imitation Game