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Turing thought computers would advance to the point where they could win the imitation game most of the time by the year 2000, and he got that pretty much right. What he couldn’t have predicted was that political correctness would strip away so much of human identity, and make communication so awkward, that the millennial generation of humans would begin failing his test. It is very difficult to tell the difference between a Social Justice Warrior and a bot program based solely on their discourse. It would be a simple matter to write a program that searches the Internet for...

So, this weekend's news in the tech world was flooded with a "story" about how a "chatbot" passed the Turing Test for "the first time," with lots of publications buying every point in the story and talking about what a big deal it was. Except, almost everything about the story is bogus and a bunch of gullible reporters ran with it, because that's what they do. First, here's the press release from the University of Reading, which should have set off all sorts of alarm bells for any reporter. Here are some quotes, almost all of which are misleading...

Nazi Operated Enigma Machine Retrieved In Baltic Sea Recovery of the century’s long lost-quintessential mechanical encryption machine: The Enigma code machine was made in the cold Baltic Sea in Europe nearly three centuries after its drastic beneficial purpose had been served during the second world war. Having been said that during the ending period of World War II, the machine was abandoned deep into the sea by German to keep it out of reach of the allies. WHAT IS AN ENIGMA CODE? The Enigma code machine. ( image source ) Enigma machines also used a form of substitution encryption. Substitution...

Nazi Operated Enigma Machine Retrieved In Baltic Sea Century’s long lost-quintessential mechanical encryption machine-the Enigma code machine was recovered in the cold Baltic Sea in Europe nearly 75 years after its drastic beneficial purpose had been served during the second world war. Having been said that during the ending period of World War II, the machine was abandoned deep into the sea by German to keep it out of reach of the allies. WHAT IS AN ENIGMA CODE? The Enigma code machine. ( image source ) Enigma machines also used a form of substitution encryption. Substitution encryption is a simple...

Alan Turing was a British scientist and a pioneer in computer science. He is well-known for breaking the German Enigma code during World War II. His suicide after being convicted of homosexual acts has made him a martyred hero of the gay community ... Turing made it his goal to crack the complex Enigma code used in German naval communications, which were generally regarded as unbreakable. Turing cracked the system and regular decryption of German messages began in mid-1941. To maintain progress on code-breaking, Turing introduced the use of electronic technology to gain higher speeds of mechanical working. Turing became...

"While all historians agree that the interception of German secret traffic by the Allies was a major factor in the ultimate victory in World War II, for many years, even after the declassification of official wartime documents on the subject, the role of Poles was either totally ignored or skimmed over with only vague references in historical literature." (Witold K. Liliental, Ph.D., Montreal, Canada in Everyone's War, Great Britain, 2000).

'It is the height of the Second World War. A group of codebreakers stands in a dimly lit warehouse 50 miles northwest of London, a giant machine composed of spinning drums and wires looms in front of them. It's taken years of work -- as well as a few shouting matches -- to get the device assembled and ready to start sorting through 159 quintillion combinations in search of the one that will let the British crack the Germans' infamous Enigma machine. The switch is flipped and nine rows of drums begin spinning as the assembled group waits... and waits....

Alan Turing and the New Emergentists Erik J. Larson February 18, 2015 4:29 AM | Permalink The acclaimed Alan Turing biographical film The Imitation Game is up for multiple Oscars on Sunday. It is a tale of Turing as a tragic hero and misunderstood genius, irascible, certainly idiosyncratic, who insinuates himself into a job interview at Bletchley Park as a self-proclaimed mathematical genius, which later is born out as true. He "invents" the digital computer to solve the decryption challenge posed by the German Enigma machines, and thus saves the Allied powers from Hitler.  The film is a human-interest story,...

The head of Britain's digital espionage agency has apologized for the organization's historic prejudice against homosexuals, saying it failed to learn from the treatment of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing. In a rare public speech, GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan told a gathering organized by the rights group Stonewall that the agency's ban on homosexuals had caused long-lasting psychological damage to many and hurt the agency because talented people were excluded from working there. "The fact that it was common practice for decades reflected the intolerance of the times and the pressures of the Cold War, but it does not...

The head of MI6 has apologised for the “misguided, unjust and discriminatory” ban on gay spies, 30 years after the restriction was lifted. In a message on Twitter, Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, apologised for the treatment of LGBT staff and potential candidates before the government-wide security ban was lifted in 1991. Same-sex relationships were decriminalised in Britain in 1967. However, it took more than two decades before the security bar to LGBT individuals serving in any of the UK intelligence agencies was rescinded. Mr Moore said this was down to a “misguided view that they...

The acclaimed fiction author tells the tale of the man who changed the world, though few have heard of him. John Atanasoff got an idea one night in the late 1930s and developed it into the first computer. Ms. Smiley discusses the man, his invention and his obscurity with Washington Post technology writer Cecilia Kang. Jane Smiley has written 15 works of fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize winning A Thousand Acres. She's also written four works of non-fiction and been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2006, she received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for...

The Prime Minister has released a statement on the Second World War code-breaker, Alan Turing, recognising the "appalling" way he was treated for being gay. Alan Turing, a mathematician most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes, was convicted of 'gross indecency' in 1952 and sentenced to chemical castration. Gordon Brown's statement came in response to a petition posted on the Number 10 website which has received thousands of signatures in recent months. Read the statement 2009 has been a year of deep reflection -- a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts...

  Alan Turing, who is said to be the father of modern computer science, was a WWII code-breaker until he was prosecuted by the British government for having homosexual relations. Thousands have now signed a petition calling for a government apology.Turing committed suicide two years after his prosecution in 1954, but was before given experimental chemical castration as a “treatment”. He is most well known for his NAZI enigma code breaking work for the British during the second World War and his helping establish a test to measure the intelligence of a machine which is now known as a Turing Test.So...

1865: After learning that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered the previous month, Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest surrenders his men at Gainesville, Ala.. Forrest orders his men to “submit to the powers to be, and to aid in restoring peace and establishing law and order throughout the land.” The infamous cavalry officer, whom Union general William Tecumseh Sherman would refer to as “that devil Forrest,” is considered one of the most brilliant tacticians of the Civil War; a remarkable feat considering he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private with no prior military experience. 1926: Naval aviators...

The naval family has lost a quiet hero whose actions helped change the course of the Battle of the Atlantic - and World War 2. The bravery of Sub Lt David Balme in the chilly waters of the North Atlantic off Greenland in May 1941 ensured the most prized piece of equipment in the German war machine fell into Allied hands: the Enigma coder. Balme, who died at the weekend aged 95, led a boarding party on to crippled U110 when the submarine was brought to the surface by depth charges after the boat attacked a convoy. The U-boat's captain...

The bright teenager from Beckingham, Kent — known then as Dorothy Winifred Shiers — had studied accounting in high school and turned her proficiency with numbers into a job with a London company. But with her nation at war, she heeded the call and joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service, or Wrens as they were known. At the end of her basic training, she was required to sign the Official Secrets Act, its inherent solemnity backed by the promise of a £2,000 fine and two years in prison for contravention at any time prior to 1975. Lincoln was an Enigma...

The head of Britain’s digital espionage agency has apologized for the organization’s historic prejudice against homosexuals, saying it failed to learn from the treatment of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing. In a rare public speech, GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan told a gathering organized by the rights group Stonewall that the agency’s ban on homosexuals had caused long-lasting psychological damage to many and hurt the agency because talented people were excluded from working there. […] The speech offered a poignant tribute to Turing, the gay computer science pioneer and architect of the effort to crack Nazi Germany’s Enigma cipher. Turing...

Britain has tried to make good by one of its most famous sons, posthumously pardoning Alan Turing for a gay sex conviction which tarnished the brilliant career of the code breaker credited with helping win the war against Nazi Germany and laying the foundation for the computer age. One author said he hoped Tuesday’s symbolic act—the famous mathematician committed suicide more than 50 years ago—would send a message to countries such as India and Russia, where gays can still be prosecuted for expressing their sexuality. Others say the pardon doesn’t go far enough, noting that thousands of others shared in...

A man credited with saving thousands of lives during World War Two should be posthumously pardoned for his historic conviction, Professor Stephen Hawking has said. Codebreaker Alan Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 following his relationship with another man, and killed himself two years later. Hawking is among a group of scientists who have written to the Daily Telegraph asking for the conviction to be overturned for Turing, who is considered to be the father of the modern computer and key in cracking the enigma code. … The letter comes after Lord Sharkey, a Liberal Democrat peer and...

The wartime discoveries at Bletchley Park (L) laid the foundations for today's Google (R) Technology giant Google normally has its eyes fixed firmly on the future. But it has turned its attention to an old house in England to help preserve a slice of computing history.For nearly half a century after World War II, a Victorian manor house in Buckinghamshire lay neglected and unloved, its dilapidated buildings falling into disrepair. By the early 90s, plans even emerged to tear down the assorted boarded-up huts around the house and erect a supermarket in their place. For reasons of national security, a...