Alan Turing (1912-1954) was a British computer scientist, mathematician, logician and cryptanalyst. He is also widely credited as the father of the modern computer and of theoretical computer science. During the Second World War he worked at Bletchley Park and helped Britain and its allies decipher German coded messages of the Enigma machine by devising a code-breaking machine thus greatly contributing to successful operations. Turing, for his contributions, was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire. After the War he went on to design and develop computers and became a pioneer of artificial intelligence, developing the Turing Test. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society but was subsequently prosecuted in 1952 for his homosexuality.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/609739/Alan-Turing#toc214876
"The Imitation Game" is a film released in 2014, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. I have actually recently seen at an HMV store that it has just been released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and I have yet to watch the movie. It is based on the book "Alan Turing: The Enigma" a biography of the computer scientist written by Andrew Hodges. It also stars Charles Dance, the English actor probably best known for his famous/infamous role as Tywin Lannister in HBO's "Game of Thrones". The movie has 8 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. You can find the official movie site here:
I have decided to write a little more about it later on in a separate post after having watched it. The New York Times called it "kind of perfect, and also kind of stale", explaining that though "an Alan Turing biopic is, all in all, a very welcome thing", the subject matter was nonetheless "a lot for a single movie to take in."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/movies/the-imitation-game-stars-benedict-cumberbatch.html?_r=0
Roger Ebert said that though the film is "one of the more rousingly entertaining crowd-pleasers (...) (it) also happens to be one of the most devastatingly sad."http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/movies/the-imitation-game-stars-benedict-cumberbatch.html?_r=0
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-imitation-game-2014
The New York Times also said that "Hut 8 at Bletchley Park serves as a prototype for the corporate campuses of Apple, Google and Facebook". Speaking of which, there was a special screening of the film in Silicon Valley where Keira Knightley met tech titans like Google founder Sergey Brin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
One of these tech moguls even invited her to have a look at some spaceships. Keira asked them when hovercrafts like those seen in "Back to the Future" would become real traveling vehicles but did not get a serious response and she apparently also freaked out when she saw the co-founder of Google wearing crocs.
You can find the amusing Knightley interview with Jimmy Kimmel here:
With intelligence like his I can see that he is quite comfortable in his hoodies, jeans and crocs (which also make him look rather cool) and cares little about what the world thinks (he does not have to, after all) but at the New York Fashion Week and show of the Spring 2013 collection of Diane von Furstenberg, who also helped Google with the marketing campaign for Google Glass, we can see that Sergey Brin was all class as an elegant highlight of the party. Little surprise he has become quite the lady's man (even, according to rumours, leaving his wife for one of his employees at Google Glass called Amanda Rosenberg).
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| Keira Knightley with Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg at The Imitation Game Screening credit: Business Insider |
One of these tech moguls even invited her to have a look at some spaceships. Keira asked them when hovercrafts like those seen in "Back to the Future" would become real traveling vehicles but did not get a serious response and she apparently also freaked out when she saw the co-founder of Google wearing crocs.
You can find the amusing Knightley interview with Jimmy Kimmel here:
I wonder if Alan Turing would have worn crocs back in the day? I have a feeling probably as geniuses are more famous for their eccentricities than their sense of fashion. On the other hand, this is not entirely true of the co-founder of Google as Sergey Brin can, in fact, be very stylish if he so chooses.
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| Sergey Brin at New York Fashion Week (photo credit : Getty) |
For a full account of the story, you can read the following article on the official website of Vanity Fair or the original can be found in the April 2014 issue of Vanity Fair magazine:
At any rate, one thing is certain, I believe that 2013 fashion show of Furstenberg and Google Glass gave a prime example of one of the first significant collaborations between technology and fashion, two topics that have always had my interest. With wearable technology and the internet of things on the rise, we will, in all probability, be seeing more and more of the futuristic fashion shows many used only to dream of several years ago. I suppose we can but wait to see what the future has in store for the new generations that will grow up on all things digital.
Well, that's a wrap for this episode of Alan Turing, which ended in a veritable gossip-house of fashion, rumours and scandals that had little to do with Turing himself and all the more with Mr. Sergey Brin and Google. Stay tuned for part 2!
