Prof Jim Al-Khalili - Alan Turing: Legacy of a Code Breaker

From cryptanalysis and the cracking of the German Enigma Code during the Second World War to his work on artificial intelligence, Alan Turing was without doubt one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. An extraordinarily gifted mathematician, he is rightly regarded as the father of computer science having set in place the formal rules that govern the way every computer code ever written actually work. This lecture will be a celebration of one man's enigmatic yet ultimately tragic life - a whirlwind tour of his genius, from whether computers can have consciousness to how a leopard gets its spots.

Presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Physics and Professor of Public Engagement in Science from the University of Surrey.

Jim Al-Khalili OBE is an Iraqi-born British theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. He has become a familiar science personality in the British media. He has hosted several BBC productions about science and is a frequent commentator about science in other British media venues.

This was a joint lecture between the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics.

Recorded on Thursday 10 May 2012 at the George Square Lecture Theatre, The University of Edinburgh.

Please note: the excerpts from the BBC documentary have been removed from this version of the lecture video due to copyright issues. You can see the full version of this lecture with the excerpts on our iTunesU channel (www.ed.ac.uk/about/video/itunesu)

• Category

  Science & Technology

[scatterlogical]

How terrible and unfortunately ironic that Turing would be subjected to a discrimination and oppression so similar to that which he had previously worked so hard to fight. I feel honoured to be able to write my appreciation towards him using a machine that is derived from his work.

Hats off to Turing.

[coeco coecomail]

Starts at 0:02:46

[Tomasz Kowaltowski]

Tommy Flowers designed the Colossus which helped to break the Lorenz (not Enigma) cipher.

[JMDinOKC]

This is available to watch or download on iTunes U, but the file is 805 Mb!

[yan nay]

nice post thanks for sharing EdinburghUniversity

[Room101b]

Thank you for this post.

It's about time Turing got the recognition he deserves.

[cptxander]

This was truly amazing, thanks for sharing.

[Graham ASH-PORTER]

I had thought someone called Flowers built the computer?

[Graham ASH-PORTER]

I had thought someone called Flowers built the computer?