Machinations

JP Seabright + Kinneson Lalor

Show your workings

This poem contains several references to Turing’s life and work: The Decision Problem is one that can have only two possible outputs – yes or no, Turing discussed it in his 1936 paper. To submit for treatment is the sentencing decision for his conviction of gross indecency. Charles’ Difference Engine is considered the first mechanical computer. Patterns formed in nature refers to the work Turing did later in his career on morphogenesis. Ada refers to Ada Lovelace. Hyperboilods of wondrous light is the first line of a poem Turing wrote on a postcard to his colleague Robin Gandy in 1954. Only 19 was the age of Arnold Murray, with whom Turing was convicted. Gross here refers to both the conviction and the unit of 122. Stilboestrol is the synthetic oestrogen compound with which Turing was injected as part of his sentencing. Joan wept refers to his fellow cryptanalyst and (briefly) fiancée Joan Clarke. Fortune teller: Turing is known to have visited fortune tellers on several occasions, once shortly before he died, adding to the speculation that he committed suicide. Black Box is a system in which only the inputs and outputs are known. If conceptually connected to a Turing machine it is known as an ‘oracle’ capable of providing solutions to computational problems. Morphogenetic is the branch of mathematical biology Turing was studying around the time of his conviction. Morcom refers to Christopher Morcom his childhood friend who died aged 18. Placed on probation whereas Turing was subjected to chemical castration, his lover Murray was bound over for good behaviour and received only a community sentence. Count me out with this one a phrase Turing uses in his 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence to describe a computer’s response to the question Please write me a sonnet. Reaction-diffusion is the mathematical model of physical phenomena also known as a ‘Turing pattern’. Colossus was the world’s first programmable computer, built by Tommy Flowers at Bletchley Park to help decode German encrypted messages. After the war he was instructed to destroy the various Colossus machines made and burn all documentation. It remained a secret until the 1970s.

Bitter Almonds

The year 2100 is when the plot in Mary Shelley novel, The Last Man concludes. The Singularity, the point at which AI supersedes human intelligence was a concept first proposed by John Von Neumann, whose work was an influence on Turing. He later went on to work on the Manhattan Project and supported the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) to limit the nuclear arms race. In 2005 Ray Kurzweil predicted the Singularity occurring in 2045. Isadora Gudak (I.J. Good) originated the concept of this “intelligence explosion” and worked with Turing in Hut 8, Bletchley Park, where he identified a decryption solution in his sleep. The 1954 phrases are all taken from the Coroner’s and Police report of Turing’s death. Bitter almonds is the recognisable smell of cyanide, the cause of Turing’s death. The chess moves are the final two moves in the first ever ‘computer’ chess game devised by Turing and David Champernowne. The Cambridge homosexual is an oblique reference to Lord Byron who also studied at Cambridge, and was known to take lovers of both sexes. Enigma is the name of the German decoding machine used by the Nazi’s during WWII that Turing and colleagues worked to decrypt. Bright Star is a reference to the Keats poem in the Introduction. Bomba Kryptologiczna is the Polish decryption machine designed to break the Enigma codes. Christopher Morcom, Turing’s close childhood friend and likely first love died of TB in 1930. White Star Liner is the shipping company that operated the fateful Titanic which sunk in 1912. The powder keg of Europe refers to the Balkan crisis that led to WW1 also occurring this year, as was the discovery of what’s known as the Voynich manuscript, which Turing later tried to decrypt with Bletchley colleagues. The quote I am just going outside and may be some time was made by Captain Lawrence Oates on the Scott’s fateful expedition to the South Pole. Samuel Butler, who used the pen-name Cellarius, publishes his book Erewhon in 1872 which includes the section the Book of Machines in which he writes about the dangers of Artificial Consciousness and self-replicating machines. In the book, a period of two hundred and seventy one years elapses in which humans do not use any man-made machinery. Simply a question of time. Turing refers to this in his 1951 paper Intelligent Machinery, a Heretical Theory. Ada Lovelace (first name was Augusta) died in 1852, aged 36, the same age her father Lord Byron died. In 1826 Mary Shelley, friend of Byron, father of Ada, publishes one of the first pieces of dystopian fiction The Last Man, which is based the fate of humanity post-pandemic. The phrase The poisoned cup is at the lips is from the novel in reference to a character’s thoughts on suicide. The final lines are also from this novel.