If you are reading this blog, then you and me are greatly indebt to one great mind of the 20th Century. Why? Well as transistor technology improved the move from telephones, wireless and other electronic device turn to see if those transistors that powered those machines could be used to compute data.
One man set out and formulate a theory for a computing machine, this Turing Machine was named after its inventor. Alan Turing would later take the computor and apply it to code breaking in the war. He and his team were successful, and some historians believe they shortened the war by anything between 2 and 4 years.
The very computor architecture that makes any computor work today is based on the system that he developed during the 1930. Albeit todays computors are 10000 times smaller, millions of times more powerful and require the power of a lightbulb rather than that of a locomotive.
Turing was homosexual, which at the end of the war was illegal, and despite saving the world from more conflict. He was tried and found guilty, where he opted for a form of chemical castration. This is reported to have broken his spirit, and he subsequently killed himself.
He was so influencial that if you check google today you’ll see a new logo in honor of his 100th birthday. It shows how his ‘computor’ worked. I just thought I share the story of the one of the great minds of humanity. This story and others like it are featured in a book I am working on on the science, history and culture of Rock Climbing. Which should be available as a eBook later in the year.