The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turning and the Invention of the Computer
The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turning and the Invention of the Computer
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The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turning and the Invention of the Computer by David Leavitt
The story of the persecuted genius who helped create the modern computer. To solve one of the great mathematical problems of his day, Alan Turing proposed an imaginary programmable calculating machine. But the idea of actually producing a Turing machine did not crystallize until he and his brilliant Bletchley Park colleagues built devices to crack the Nazis' Enigma code, thus ensuring the Allies' victory in World War II. In so doing, Turing became a champion of artificial intelligence, formulating the famous (and still unbeaten) Turing Test that challenges our ideas of human consciousness. But Turing's postwar computer-building was cut short when, as an openly gay man in a time when homosexuality was officially illegal in England, he was apprehended by the authorities and sentenced to a treatment that amounted to chemical castration, leading to his suicide. With a novelist's sensitivity, David Leavitt portrays Turing in all his humanityhis eccentricities, his brilliance, his fatal candorwhile elegantly explaining his work and its implications.
David Leavitt is the author of novels including The Body of Jonah Boyd and The Two Hotel Francforts, as well as story collections. The New York Public Library honored him as a Literary Lion. He teaches creative writing at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where he lives.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780393052367 |
| ISBN 10 | 0393052362 |
| Title | The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turning and the Invention of the Computer |
| Author | David Leavitt |
| Series | Great Discoveries |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2005-12-17 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |