4 | 1 lIfE AND wORk
There was more. In addition to his codebreaking, which saved untold millions of lives, and
his remarkable theoretical and practical contributions to the development of the computer,
Turing was also the first pioneer of what we now call artificial intelligence. Further, he made
profound contributions to mathematics and mathematical logic, philosophy, mathematical
biology, and the study of the mind. Jefferson said that Turing’s genius ‘shone from him’: this
book explains what that genius achieved.
Birth and early years
Turing’s mother, Sara Stoney, came from a family of engineers and scientists, and his father
Julius held a position in the Indian Civil Service, in the imperial city of Madras, now Chennai.
Julius returned briefly to England with Sara in 1912 and Alan was born that year on 23 June
(Fig. 1.1). He entered the world at what is now the Colonnade Hotel in Maida Vale, about half a
mile from London’s Paddington Station.
The young Alan grew up in the south of England, in a privileged world—cooks, maids, holi-
days abroad. But he lived the life of a near orphan, lodging with carers and seeing his parents
only when they returned from India on leave. Sara described how she came back from one
absence of many months to find Alan profoundly changed:^4
From having always been extremely vivacious—even mercurial—making friends with everyone,
he had become unsociable and dreamy.
figure 1.1 Plaque marking Turing’s birthplace at 2 Warrington Crescent, Maida Vale, West London.
Posted by Simon Harriyott to Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alan_Turing_
(5025990183).jpg. Creative Commons Licence.