Algorithmic Social Sciences Research Unit ASSRU Discussion Paper Series 3 – 2016/I Alan Turing’s Orthogonal Trajectories Decoding the PROF K. Vela Velupillai February 2016 Alan Turing’s Orthogonal Trajectories Decoding the PROF1 K. Vela Velupillai2 Tottvägen 11 (1 tr) 169 54 Solna Sweden 1st February, 2016
[email protected] ‘The dominant passion in [Alan Turing’s] life was his ideas; it is those for which he should be remembered, and for them no apology is needed.’ Dermot Turing, 2015, p. 306. 1 An extended Review Article of Dermot Turing’s: PROF: Alan Turing Decoded-A Biography (The History Press, Gloucestershire, UK; 2015). For obvious reasons Dermot Turing’s book will be referred to as ‘Decoded, 2015’ in the main body of this essay. In the ‘spirit’ of a Review Article and in the tradition of Hodges (1983) and Decoded, 2015, I shall refrain from mathematical hieroglyphics in the body of the paper. 2 Dedicated to the memory of Barry Cooper, friend, Turing scholar par excellence and an intellectual with a personal and professional integrity that was a reflection of Alan Turing’s open- minded innocence and depth. Alan Turing: His Work and Impact, edited by Barry Cooper & Jan van Leeuwen (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2013) won the R.R. Hawkins Award and the award for the Best Book in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, at the Association of American Publishers (AAP) Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP), annual conference, held on 6th February, 2014, in Washington, DC. Moreover, Barry Cooper was the moving force behind three important Turing initiatives: The Alan Turing Centenary Year (2012) organisation; the Newton Mathematical Institute (Cambridge University) & Royal Society Turing Memorial Conference on The Incomputable, held at Chicheley Hall, in June, 2012; and the passionate advocate and determined organiser of the move to ‘force’ the British government to grant a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing.