Turing's Groundbreaking Documents Set for Auction, Once Narrowly Escaped Shredder's Clutches
Auction Uncovers Alan Turing's Treasured Papers, Paving Way for History Buffs
Get ready to step back in time as a trove of Alan Turing's groundbreaking papers, including his personal copy of his PhD dissertation, hits the auction block on June 17. These precious relics narrowly escaped destruction and are now up for grabs, offering a unique opportunity for history enthusiasts.
These academic offprints—copies distributed among scholars—include more than just Turing’s signed dissertation, “Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals” (1939). They also feature his seminal 1937 paper, "On Computable Numbers," known as the first computer programming manual, and his last major published work, “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis,” from 1952.
Turing, an English mathematician, codebreaker, and pioneering computer scientist, once handed these priceless artifacts to his close friend, fellow mathematician Norman Routledge. After Routledge's demise in 2013, his daughter kept the papers in her loft, almost discarding them before ultimately securing an appraisal.
" discovering what was inside that carrier bag was nothing short of breathtaking," remarked Jim Spencer, director of Rare Book Auctions, the company handling the sale.
Key items, such as "On Computable Numbers," which introduced the concept of the "universal computing machine," are expected to fetch between £40,000 and £60,000 ($54,220 to $81,324). Even Turing’s first published paper from 1935, “Equivalence of Left and Right Almost Periodicity,” a single sheet of paper, is part of the cache.
Ethel Turing gave these treasures to Routledge in May 1956, two years after Turing’s untimely death at age 41. Turing's brilliant career spanned Princeton University, where he earned his doctorate, Bletchley Park, the U.K.'s code-breaking agency, the U.K.'s National Physical Laboratory, and the University of Manchester, where he designed early computing prototypes.
Despite his stellar accomplishments, Turing faced persecution in 1952 when he admitted to a sexual relationship with another man to the police. Convicted under an 1885 law that criminalized homosexual acts as "gross indecency," Turing was subjected to chemical castration and barred from entering the United States.
Turing’s tragic end, a result of cyanide poisoning either by suicide or an accident during a chemistry experiment, remains a mystery. His ordeal inspired a 2009 apology from the British government and a 2017 law, known as the "Alan Turing Law," that retroactively pardons people convicted under antiquated legislation in England and Wales for homosexual acts.
Join our daily newsletter for unmissable discoveries
Stay informed about the most fascinating findings in science, technology, and culture delivered straight to your inbox.
The Turing test, his famous mathematical model, and 12 other pivotal moments in artificial intelligence history are waiting in our archives for your exploration.
- The Intriguing Tale of the Turing Test: Still Puzzling Innovators Today
- Alan Turing’s Mathematical Model Scrambles Brains but Not AI Algorithms
- Unraveling 12 Milestones in the Development of Artificial Intelligence
Science and technology are intricately connected to Alan Turing's trove of papers, which are up for auction. These academic offprints feature his seminal works, such as "On Computable Numbers," known as the first computer programming manual, showcasing Turing's pioneering role in the field of computing technology.
