Michael Olinick - Simply Turing

Simply Turing explores the nooks and crannies of Alan Turings multifarious life and interests, illuminating with skill and grace the complexities of Turings personality and the long-reaching implications of his work.

Charles Petzold, author of The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour through Alan Turings Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine

Michael Olinick has written a remarkably fresh, detailed study of Turings achievements and personal issues. Bravo!

Brian Winkel, Director of SIMIODE and Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy

Michael Olinick presents an impressive work, covering Turings early life, the wartime period of code-breaking, and his post-war life and death. Most touching was Turings request, as an adult, that his parents give him a teddy bear for Christmas, as he had never had one as a boy. On the war years, Olinick draws us methodically through a simple, clear history of codes and code-breaking, featuring Turings contributions. Most fascinating are Olinicks questions about Turings death: Was it a suicide, as the inquest declared, or a tragic accident? Or perhaps something more sinister? Perhaps we will never know.

Paul Wonnacott, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Maryland and Middlebury College

Michael Olinick has written a vibrant and absorbing biography of Alan Turing. Turings work as a cryptographer during WW II and his pioneering the development of the digital computer helped us win that war and make our technology-driven world of today possibleall this against the backdrop of the homophobic world Turing tried to navigate.

Joseph Malkevitch, Professor of Mathematics at York College (CUNY) and CUNY Graduate Center

As the father of the field of computer science, every aspect of Alan Turings life and work is important to us today as we benefit from his brilliant insights. Michael Olinicks book makes them all interesting and accessible. He highlights the development of Turings fascination with the biology of the human body and brain and the idea that they can be considered as complex machines. He shows how this idea formed the basis of much of Turings work and how his understanding of the mechanistic principles of biological systems coupled with his ability to think outside the box and his thorough understanding of mathematical principles informed and guided his developing ideas about how to design thinking machines that would ultimately lead to his universal computing machine. Reading Simply Turing is like walking alongside this fascinating man. Olinick has meticulously researched and clearly explained Turings life, his passions, and his work so that his personality comes alive, his brilliant creativity astounds and we come away feeling that we have lost a close and dear friend.

Tom Perera author of Inside Enigma and The Story of the Enigma and Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at Montclair State University

Michael Olinick tells the story of Alan Turing in clear, energetic prose. Those who dont know Turings story will find Simply Turing to be a compelling introduction to one of the key pioneers of computer science, artificial intelligence, and logic. Olinick includes enough technical details, easily accessible to the undergraduate mathematics student, to help the reader understand the breadth and creativity of Turings contributions. Far from the conventional story of a colorful and misunderstood martyr, Simply Turing shows why Turing was a foundational figure in computer science and why the ultimate prize for innovation in computer science is named in his honor.

David Alan Grier, author of When Computers Were Human and Former President of IEEE Computer Society

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