Lesson: Biographies/AlanTuring

Biographies

Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing was born on June 23, 1912, in London, England. Already at a young age, he displayed signs of high intelligence. When Turing attended Sherborne School at the age of 13, he became very interested in math and science.

After Sherborne, Turing enrolled at King's College (University of Cambridge) in Cambridge, eventually becoming a fellow at the school after his graduation.

In 1936, Turing delivered a paper in which he presented the notion of a universal machine (later called the "Turing machine") capable of computing anything that is computable: The central concept of the modern computer.

During World War II, Turing made significant contributions to the code-breaking of German ciphers, which helped shorten the war.

In the mid-1940s, Turing led the design work for the Automatic Computing Engine and ultimately created a groundbreaking blueprint which influenced the design of the world’s first personal computer.

In 1950 he published a paper, "Computing machinery and intelligence," proposing an experiment that has significantly influenced debates over artificial intelligence.

In the early 1950s Turing was charged with gross indecency for being gay, which was illegal in England at the time and he had to choose between receiving hormonal treatment (which would leave him impotent) or imprisonment. He chose the treatment.

As a result of his conviction, Turing's security clearance was removed and he was barred from continuing his work with cryptography.

Turing died on June 7, 1954, supposedly having committed suicide by eating a poisoned apple, however, it has been argued that his death might have been an accident.

After World War II, Turing was honored in a number of ways. In 1999, Time magazine named him one of its "100 Most Important People of the 20th century," and he has been recognized for his impact on computer science, with many crediting him as the "founder" of the field.

In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on behalf of the British government, posthumously apologized to Turing for prosecuting him as a homosexual.

Expressions

Read the examples below and then make a few sentences with each expression.

make contributions

He made contributions to the event on Saturday.
Martin Luther King, Jr. made a great contribution to society by fighting for equal rights.

to be charged with

He was charged with burglary this afternoon.
The woman was charged with the murder of her husband.

to be barred from

EU citizens living in UK will be barred from voting in the referendum that will decide wether the UK is in or out of the European Union.

to be honored

He was honered many times after his death.
She was honored for her contributions to the development of a cure for cancer.

to credit someone as

René Descartes is credited as the father of analytical geometry.

Talk a little about...

Prejudice against homosexuals had a deep impact in the life of one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. Do you think the government has a right to interfere in someone's private life? How do you stand on other controversial issue such as euthanasia and abortion?

Conversation

How were you as a child? Did your parents and teachers understand you?
Do you like math and science? How was your relationship with these subjects?
What were your favorite subjects in school?
When did you know what you wanted to do with your life?
How have personal computers impacted society?
How would your life be different if there weren't personal computers?
Have you watched any movies about AI (artificial intelligence)?
Do you think one day computers will be able to have emotions like we do?
What prejudices do we still have in our own society?
Are you guilty of having prejudices as well?
How do we avoid having prejudice?
Have you ever been a victim of prejudice?

Practice

Read the following sentences. Then change them to the negative and interrogative form.

He was born in 1955.
He was born in San Francisco.
He was born in California.
He was born in February.
He was born on the 24th.

He got married in 1970.
He wanted to get married in 1970.
She signed the adoption papers.
She allowed the Jobs to adopt Steve.
They promised to provide him with a college education.

He learned how to take things apart.
He learned how to rebuild things.
He started to work at Atari.
His mother taught him to read.
He went to Reed College.

The school officials recommended Jobs skip two years.
Jobs' parents allowed him to skip only one year.
He chose to drop out of college.
He chose to drop in the Calligraphy class as an auditing student.
He skipped one grade.
He graduated high school in 1972.

His parents could afford to pay for his college.
His father worked as a mechanic.
His mother worked as an accountant.

True or False

True	False
		Steve Jobs moved to California in 1955.
		Clara Jobs, Steve's biological mother, was an accountant.
		Steve was given up for adoption.
		Steve's mother gave him up for adoption so she could go to college.
		Clara and Paul Jobs promised Steve's biological mother they would provide him with a college education.
		Paul's father was a mechanic. He taught Steve about electronics.
		Before he started school, Steve could already read.
		Paul's father was frustrated with his grades in school.
		Jobs skipped only one grade in school even though he could have skipped two.
		Jobs graduated high school in 1972 and started college the next year.
		Reed College was a good and affordable school.
		Jobs' parents had a hard time paying for their son's college education.
		Jobs said that the Calligraphy course he took in college was very important in designing the Mac.

Lifehacks

Lifehack: What do you think about this lifehack? Will it be useful to you?

Quotes

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” -- Steve Jobs

Exercise

Write a few paragraphs commenting on the Steve Jobs quote above. Do you agree with him? Do you have examples from your life? When can this be a bad advice? What do you need to do in your life in order to be able to focus and simplify things?

References

Comments

Did you have any difficulties? Learn anything interesting? Comment below so you can share your knowledge with other students.

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