21 The Secrets of Automatic Formal Systems and the Enigmatic Alan Turing ome Dbhgé gree ingh wate ato ha Dy sir ete es ther automaton Te foal pr fame ad fray canbe rina ale rte in elon [creel ugh optelilog any lone ingles pve able nosh rnc forte el worl The top pep metres tod duh mind-mumbig bursa tine ey owe fi eo thei dt eer Tard ran tem doc aly mater ee mal ems eno ‘achive “hia preuaty ene toow numb ‘Blige cto hc Ruston, be af any pretense formal pte ne papi Iedtim-s machine tome t_swihin wih tem bee Cie aba psedtn machine chology fhe nan wel bod, those bing cle sender ‘Thefomal tan cle alc lad ow or conti of ny ed tober aon of cco, din |paticulr for Fleming’ vacoum tube, befor it would find a med iam in which it could be embodied ins practical way Ie neaded 39 «embodiment appropri ots capable. “Two key conceprual notions were lacking aswel co bridge che ap between Boole’ theorems of symbolic logic anda device ro ‘manipula them in seul ways, Both atived just proe co World Worl "The young Briish mathematician Alan Tung (912-54) was doing work on symbolic logic when, in one ofthe ewenith cen- turys most impressive ingllectal achievements, he provided the first ofthe needed concepts by working outon paper the complete deals of how an electronic computer might function. In 934 he twas teny-cvo pears old, a newly installed graduate fellow at ‘Cambridge with « £500-2-yea stipend an fee room and board. [Although che fellowship volved no formal dies he wasexpected to work on some mathemati problem of significance. He chose to take up where Kure Gide had lef, ying up a loose end le Unresolved by Gide’ cheorer, which was sl eausing conser pation among mathematicians the world ore (see chapter 4). The ing question vasis there any mins by which ic might be por o dnguish between provable and non-prvable mathemat- cal tatemensthatis, shor ofacealyprovingor disproving them which Godel had demonstrated was no possible)? Might here be some formula or other that could be applied to give an answer of “provable” or “no provable”? "The reader may well nile a the angels-on-theheadofapin rnatuse of such a question, Ie would be reasonable o ask of what possible usec could be to spend onc time tying ro ansver it. A payer might be prompted ro demand whether a financial grant- id for such a project wat a sane way in which co spend public ‘money. Tring’ experienc, though pethaps somewhat more dr nate than others, wae a prime example of how rarefied science atin spite ofits insistence on purty oF motive—advance che ‘aus of clinton in very eonret Ways The Secrets of Automatic Formal Systems... 28 ee Jaret eens ee =a ee ee eae eee Seles pre Steers naan Souter ee reper a eee ee epee ee Sate cient ee siete ahem aaeioe ee Se Sit peciese metas ee Sipe eet rae26 se ee eras Tepe deter gee See earl ime rig ree bye Vi coer fae eaeri meee erat Coches Saale ee ee GEE ager ESecerpelee cpio ae Egon tl a Eocene Coe Piety eepeeere rere il oe cere The Seerets of Automatic Formal Systems... 287 Ship char could be talated nto Boolean algebra could also be apres in an ary of electrical witches. The Boolean eypresion be (tor bis equa «where ors sepresened by the mulipiation symbol xin Boolean notation) would be represented by svo awieches in paral, either one of ‘which could be dosed tallow azrent ofl This was eed at “er” circuit because i conformed to Boolean expression in which «wo propositions ate joined bythe conjunction ar if ihe ere Gfeither switch i closed), then the sun is uve (ee current will flo). Two switches in seis, onthe other hind, is analogous to an and expresion: both mus be dased for current flow, and fone isopen and che other dosed, curren: wile Blocked ince it must pas hough both switche reach 0 jus in the Boolean ex- preston «+b ehoth aand bmustbe tre foreobe trie Frc rent lo). Shannon found that any conceivable rangement of switches had a corresponding expression n Boos logic. The con ‘verse was an even more powerful des any proposition tac cou ‘expressed in Boolean logic could abo be expressed in anata mencoflectria witches, Since arithmatic problems ate probes Jnsymboi, or Boolean, ogi, Shanzon had also showed how trical Geir could be wired eo salve aihmesil problems. ‘Minds such sShannon'and Turing were nocto be ovelooked inpursuance ofthe wa effor aginst Hider (In fa the wo math éematcans were to mec senor technical advisers to thee respec tive governments and discus thei mur ntzesthalfay dough the confice, when Turing cose che U-boat infested Aanic on the Quen Ezabetho inspect America efforts t code makingsnd code breaking) In 193, Taig found himself atached co modey group of weedy cscs scholars and unkempt ches champions housed ina series of eoctages at che British Code and Cypher Unie inBlechey Pk neste norives of London in Buckinghashie “This wa the modest beginning of what would become a ery ge and very ere part ofthe war effort, one chat was to bea decisive faco inthe defeat of Germany Throughout the was, Ting waa in Boole terms, “true” or “ae.” Therefore ay logical relation: ]288 srnvy oF Tue wes senior figure in astonishingly succesful British efforts to breathe German communications codes in all theatres of atin, ‘The German cipher machine, which the Nazis believed with absolute assurance co be failsafe, was called Enigma. The British fort co second-guess the machine was called Ul. Tring’sasighes into the logical workings of machines were lerlly invaluable, in ‘thatthe Achilles heel of Enigma proved to be the very fac thse it suas 2 machine, and therefore its opertions could be simulated by “Turing Machine, or digital computer. By the end ofthe war, thou sands of men and women were involved in the decoding and inter- pretingeffore run ou of Bletchley Park And they were being sisted by super-secret, high-speed digital computers—at first electo~ mechanical using mechanical relays, bu ler fly eleeronie—in ‘which Tung had played a ey design role" While his was undoubeedly one ofthe most impartancindvid- ual contributions tothe winning ofthe war, it wene unacknowl ‘edged for more than two decades because the work that had been accomplished at Bletchley Park was (and in some respects sls) highly secret. And a the height of the espionage and Red paranoia excesses ofthe Cold War, in the summer of 954, Turing was found dead inthe bedroom of his suburban Manchester home, «victim of cyanide poisoning, There was a hasty inquest, and the coroner pronounced ica scaightforard suicide.” ‘The background to Turin’ death suggests chat final judgment ‘on the coroner’ vedic of 954 should perhaps be reserved. Tuting, an amiable, gentlemanly and thoroughly cccenee genius of serufiy professorial habis and with a pasion for marathon running, was a homosexual whose innate honesty compelled him eo inform any close friend of the fact. He wat also in possession of fll mental catalogue ofthe secrets of Ultra, which Britain and the United States chen regarded as ofthe highes strategie value. At Manchester ‘University, where he spent his last years working, head acces ro 2 Ferranti computer on which ocher scientists were doing work for the British atomie bomb program. The Secrets of Automatic Formal Systems... 289 “Two year efor his death, he was areted and charged with ross indeceny following 3 consensval homosenal encounter in ‘heprivayofhisown home witha young man. (The poli earned oft whileiavedgaing a burglary Turing had later reported: he suspected the young man and tod the polices.) Homosexual el tions beeween consenting couples wee chen lg in Britain, asin smostof North America and the ead tolerance ofhomosexualty thae Tring had found a pre-war Cambridge had largely vanished, afic the war. Homoscruls were considered by che governmens of Bris, the United Saces and Canada tobe obvious sci isk, fief milary servis ofan kndand dangerously unsuitable for ‘work ofa sraegaly sense nacre. In all dhe counts, loyal “Novo ni anmpectble irom am hh and sometimes other deat dung the 19508 by govemnment security agencies because they were homosert “Turing was ied in open court convicted and put on one yea’ probation, daring which ime he wa fored, condition of his sentence eo ake + drug that was aupposed to belp cure him of hie" deviant” tendencies by causing temporary ienpoenceIealso ‘cause him to develop bres ‘Shordy before his death he confided to longtime fiend chat head been providing concnuinghep toa government decrypting ‘fore but had lacy been told hat there was no longer anyplace for homosemls in such top-secret work.* Whatever these fics may _ayabout Turing death in no sense does itseem just oa his = Cie, fsich it ws, "eaighforeard"Tewasa disbing and igno- Iinious end fora perso who deserves robe eebrated at onc ofthe peat men ofthe wendieth century.