“Of course machines can't think as people do. A machine is different from a person. Hence, they think differently. The interesting question is, just because something, uh... thinks differently from you, does that mean it's not thinking? Well, we allow for humans to have such divergences from one another. You like strawberries, I hate ice-skating, you cry at sad films, I am allergic to pollen. What is the point of... different tastes, different... preferences, if not, to say that our brains work differently, that we think differently? And if we can say that about one another, then why can't we say the same thing for brains... built of copper and wire, steel?” - Alan Turing
This film is based on true events and the 1983
book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. The film is directed
by Norwegian director Morten Tyldum in his English language debut, and tells
the story of the English mathematician Alan Turing, played superbly by Benedict
Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch offers one of the strongest performances I've seen
over the past year, and I believe is worthy of a Best
Actor Oscar nomination. The movie also acquired over $219 million
worldwide production budget and nominated with a lot of awards in different
categories. What can I say? It is an outstanding movie after all.
The movie took place in England in a different
time lapse but in chronological order. It tells about the life of Alan Turing,
a British mathematician and computer pioneer, not only that, he is also a logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, mathematical
biologist, and marathon and ultra-distance runner. He is a genius! When Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, Turing travels to
Bletchley Park, where, under the direction of Commander Alastair Denniston, he joins the cryptography team of Hugh Alexander, John Cairncross, Peter Hilton, Keith Furman, and Charles
Richards. Because of Turing's selfishness towards his work and considers his colleagues inferior, he fires Furman and Richards and places a difficult crossword in newspapers to
find replacements. Here comes Joan Clarke, a
Cambridge graduate, surpasses
Turing’s test, but her parents will not allow her to work with the male
cryptographers. Turing then arranges for her to live and work with the female clerks
who intercept the messages and shares his plans with her. The team are trying to break the ciphers created by the Enigma machine, which the Nazis use to
provide security for their wireless messages.
What intrigues me a lot throughout the movie
is his willingness to break the code by building a machine that can harness extraordinary
power and decipher Enigma rather than breaking the code manually. His
invention, “Christopher”, which is named after his boyhood friend. It is fascinating
to be honest, to name your invention to someone you matter the most. Let me
just recall the start of their friendship, way back 1927, Turing is a victim of
bullies. He was bullied a lot at his boarding school and was unhappy about it.
Turing has only one friend, Christopher, who comes to his defense. They were
both interested in cryptography and as time goes on, Turing developed romantic
feelings towards him. When he has the courage to confess his love, Christopher
died unexpectedly from bovine tuberculosis. That was the
beginning of Alan Turing’s Homosexuality which was illegal in England at that
time and therefore, God’s name were mentioned several times. Until now it’s a
sin but people nowadays don't care anymore whether you're a Homo or a Lesbian.
People treat equally. In UK, they are allowed to
marry the same gender. It's already legal. Some countries don't approve to this matter but let’s just face
it, we are in a newer generation where EVERYTHING IS LEGAL.
Let’s
go back to “Christopher”, Turing’s Machine, the machine was a successful
invention. There were failures at first and interference but he was dedicated
including his colleagues. Turing kept working day and night until he finally recalibrates the machine and it quickly decodes a message. He likes
solving problems and Enigma is one of his problems, he said from the movie. He often works alone but I think it's his way of focusing with his work rather than asking for help with his colleagues.
The ending part of the movie was depressing. Everything just came
crashing down and filled with negativity. It saddens to see Alan Turing with
his physical and mental deterioration. He was prosecuted for Homosexual acts.
He undergoes chemical castration so he can continue his work. It was terrible and rather disturbing to watch but it happened
and I feel sorry for Turing. But there's a good thing happened, his
work saved lives and made people’s lives a lot easier, including us right now.
For some reason,
the movie kind of resembles “Theory of Everything”, which is another great
movie based on a true story, a life story of Stephen Hawking. I cried quite a
few times while watching the movie. Is it because of his Lou Gehrig's disease that has gradually paralysed him over
the decades? Sure it is one of the factors but what makes it special is his
commitment for work. I’m not comparing the production of those two movies, I'm resembling
their past lives. They were both geniuses and they both contributed a huge change to the
society.
In the movie also,
I heard this quote a few times “Sometimes, it is the people no one
imagines anything of who do the things that no one imagines.” It felt like it has a deeper meaning into
it. Then I
tried to search the phrase used in the internet and there I found out it was the phrase Christopher used of Turing and Turing once used of Clarke. Is it something special? Perhaps Turing kept this phrase as part of his great achievement.
Without his work, and
the other brilliant mind’s inventions, I think we will surely be stuck on the
pre historic age, which I never dreamt of. His machine was never perfected,
though it generated a whole field of research into what became known as
"Turing Machines". Today we call them "computers”.
“Machines can never think as humans do but just because something thinks differently from you, does it mean it's not thinking?” - Alan Turing
