Science - Zeno Agency Ltd.

Andrew Hodges on the History of AI, Alan Turing and more!

Posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2018

Andrew Hodges, author of the critically-acclaimed biography ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA was recently interviewed for the University of Oxford’s Futuremakers Podcast. Here’s the episode’s intro…

Many developments in science are achieved through people being able to ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’ and in the history of AI two giants in particular stand out. Ada Lovelace, who inspired visions of computer creativity, and Alan Turing, who conceived machines which could do anything a human could do. So where do their stories, along with those of calculating engines, punched card machines and cybernetics fit into to where artificial intelligence is today?

Join our host, philosopher Peter Millican, as he explores this topic with Ursula Martin, Professor at the University of Edinburgh and a member of Oxford’s Mathematical Institute, Andrew Hodges, Emeritus Fellow at Wadham, who tutors for a wide range of courses in pure and applied mathematics, and Jacob Ward, a historian of science, technology, and modern Britain and a Postdoctoral Researcher in the History of Computing.

Andrew’s aforementioned book is published by Vintage in the UK, Princeton University Press in the US, and widely in translation. Here’s the synopsis…

The official book behind the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley

Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Turing’s far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.

See Andrew Hodges speak at the British Library

Posted on Monday, July 17th, 2017

Next Monday, Andrew Hodges will take part in an event at the British Library celebrating the like, work and legacy of Alan Turing. You can find full details here, but here’s a mini-intro…

Alan Turing (23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) is now celebrated for his crucial contribution to the Allied victory in WW2 and for being the genius mathematician who set the foundations of modern computing. However during his lifetime he was a relatively obscure figure. A victim of the prevalent attitudes toward homosexuality, he was chemically castrated before dying at the age of 41. Jim Al-Khalili is joined by scientists and experts in an evening dedicated to Turing.

Andrew Hodges is the author of the critically-acclaimed, best-selling biography ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA. In 201?, the biography was adapted for the big screen in the Oscar-winning, Benedict Cumberbatch-starring THE IMITATION GAME. The biography is published in the UK by Vintage, in the US by Princeton University Press, and widely in translation. Here’s the synopsis…

Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Turing’s far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.

Andrew Hodges delivers Strachey Lecture

Posted on Friday, November 18th, 2016

Last week, Andrew Hodges gave the Strachey Lecture at the University of Oxford, about Alan Turing’s ‘work and ideas from the definition of computability, the universal machine to the prospect of Artificial Intelligence‘. Below you can find a video of the event…

Andrew Hodges is the author of the best-selling ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA, which is published in the UK by Vintage and in the US by Princeton University Press — it has also been published widely in translation. The biography was adapted into the Oscar-winning movie THE IMITATION GAME, in 2014. Here’s the synopsis…

Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Turing’s far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.

Here is just a small sample from the many glowing reviews the book has received…

‘A first-rate presentation of the life of a first-rate scientific mind… it is hard to imagine a more thoughtful and warm biography than this one.’ — New York Times Book Review

‘One of the finest scientific biographies I’ve ever read: authoritative, superbly researched, deeply sympathetic and beautifully told.’ — Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

‘Andrew Hodge’s book is of exemplary scholarship and sympathy. Intimate, perceptive and insightful, it’s also the most readable biography I’ve picked up in some time.’ — Time Out

‘One of the finest scientific biographies ever written.’ — New Yorker

‘This rather shadowy figure has now finally been lifted into the light of day… it has to be said that Andrew Hodges has put together an extraordinary story.’ — Sunday Telegraph

‘Hodges’s biography is sensitive, sympathetic and uncompromisingly intellectual. The maths is extremely hard work – but helps the lay reader to appreciate the scale of Turing’s achievements.’ — Brandon Robsaw, Independent on Sunday

‘Life and work are both made enthralling by Hodges, himself a scientist.’ — Sunday Times

‘Andrew Hodges, in this fine biography… brings Turing the thinker and Turing the man alive for the reader and thus allows us all to share in the privilege of knowing him.’ — Financial Times

ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA is a Best Science Book of 2014

Posted on Monday, January 26th, 2015

Andrew Hodges‘s ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA has been named as one of the best physical science books of 2014 by the Guardian newspaper.

In case you are unfamiliar with the book, here is the synopsis…

It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades — all before his suicide at age forty-one. This acclaimed biography of the founder of computer science, with a new preface by the author that addresses Turing’s royal pardon in 2013, is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life.

Capturing both the inner and outer drama of Turing’s life, Andrew Hodges tells how Turing’s revolutionary idea of 1936 — the concept of a universal machine — laid the foundation for the modern computer and how Turing brought the idea to practical realisation in 1945 with his electronic design. The book also tells how this work was directly related to Turing’s leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph that was critical to Allied victory in the Atlantic. At the same time, this is the tragic account of a man who, despite his wartime service, was eventually arrested, stripped of his security clearance, and forced to undergo a humiliating treatment program — all for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime.

Published in the UK by Vintage Books and in the US by Princeton University Press, ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA is also the inspiration behind THE IMITATION GAME, a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, which has been generating plenty of Oscars and other award buzz. (The covers above are for the UK and US tie-in editions.)

In related news, and of interest to Turing fans everywhere, Andrew Hodges has penned some catalogue copy for a rare, secret notebook of the mathematician’s which will be sold at auction in April 2015: ‘Alan Turing was parsimonious with his words and everything from his pen has special value. This notebook shines extra light on how, even when he was enmeshed in great world events, he remained committed to free-thinking work in pure mathematics.’

Short Fiction Watch: E.J. Swift joins the IRREGULARITY

Posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2014

We’re very happy to report that E.J. Swift has a story in Jurassic London‘s latest anthology, IRREGULARITY, which was published today. Emma’s story “The Spiders of Stockholm” joins thirteen other short stories by leading and up-and-coming authors of SFF.

The anthology was edited by Jared Shurin, with a cover by Howard Hardiman. Here’s the synopsis…

Irregularity is about the tension between order and chaos in the 17th and 18th centuries. Men and women from all walks of life dedicated themselves to questioning, investigating, classifying and ordering the natural world. They promoted scientific thought, skepticism and intellectual rigour in the face of superstition, intolerance and abuses of power. These brave thinkers dedicated themselves and their lives to the idea that the world followed rules that human endeavour could uncover… but what if they were wrong?

Irregularity is about the attempts to impose man’s order on nature’s chaos, the efforts both successful and unsuccessful to better know the world.

Fom John Harrison to Ada Lovelace, Isaac Newton to Émilie du Châtelet, these stories showcase the Age of Reason in a very different light.

This anthology is published to coincide with two exhibitions at the National Maritime Museum taking place in 2014: a major exhibition on the story of the quest for longitude at sea and a steampunk show at the Royal Observatory. The Museum is also our partner for the publication of Irregularity, including access to their archives for materials, imagery and inspiration.

Alan Turing Movie Adaptation Update and Long-Overdue, Posthumous Pardon!

Posted on Tuesday, December 31st, 2013

Above is the first official photograph from the set of The Imitation Game has been released, via the movie’s official Twitter account. The Imitation Game is an adaptation of Zeno client Andrew Hodges‘s critically-acclaimed biography of Alan Turing: ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA.

In related, long-overdue news: Just before Christmas, Queen Elizabeth II issued a posthumous, full pardon to Alan Turing nearly sixty years after the mathematician’s death. Turing, who helped crack the German Enigma code and change the course of the Second World War, is also considered one of the fathers of modern day computing. He was subject to humiliating treatment and punishment before his death because of his sexuality. On March 31st, 1952, Turing pleaded guilty and was convicted of ‘divers [sic] counts of Gross Indecency’. There has been a decades-long campaign to attain a pardon for Turing, and we’re delighted that the Crown and government have finally done so.

ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA is published by Vintage in the UK and Princeton University Press in the US. It has also been translated in a number of other languages.