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Authors: John Gribbin
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the post-mortem examination showed that Turing's liver had a low concentration of the poison, not consistent with its having been swallowed.
The simplest explanation is that Turing accidentally inhaled a lethal dose of cyanide just before going to bed. At the other extreme, conspiracy theorists have suggested that as a homosexual who knew too many secrets he was murdered on âofficialâ orders. Somewhere in between there is the coroner's verdict of suicide. But it is useless to speculate. What matters is that on the night of June 7, 1954, at the age of just forty-one, Alan Turing, the founder of modern computing, died as a result of ingesting cyanide.
The American approach to electronic computing, which Turing derided, was championed by John von Neumann (usually known as âJohnnyâ) who, as it happens, was actually born in Hungary as Neumann János Lajos (in Hungarian the family name comes first) or âJancsiâ to his family.
JANCSI
He was born in Budapest on December 28, 1903, the eldest son of a prosperous Jewish banker. His father had benefited from the general economic prosperity of Hungary following the turmoil of the 1860s which had led to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy out of the old Austrian Empire, and specifically from the easing of anti-Jewish restrictions and attitudes in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Originally Neumann Miksa (Max Neumann), in 1913 Jancsi's father acquired a hereditary title, ostensibly âfor meritorious service in the financial field,â although ithelped that he also made a substantial contribution to the state coffers. 1 As a result, he became Margittai Neumann Miksaâin German, Maximilian Neumann von Margitta, Margitta being the ancestral home of the Neumann family and also a play on the name of Max's wife, Margit. So Jancsi became Margittai Neumann János, in German Johann Neumann von Margitta, later simplified to Johann von Neumann, and in English, later still, Johnny von Neumann. As if that were not confusing enough, his two younger brothers, who like Johnny emigrated to the United States, each adopted a different version of the surname. Michael (originally Mihály) simply dropped the âvonâ and became Michael Neumann, while Nicholas (originally Miklós) added it to the surname to become Nicholas Vonneumann.
But all that lay far in the future when Jancsi, growing up in Budapest, was first showing signs of his unusual mental ability. He could recall, verbatim, the contents of any book that he read, and devoured the contents of his father's library. Initially the children were educated at home, benefiting from the attentions of both French and German governesses, with specialist tutors in other subjects. During the First World War, they learned English from two British men who had been interned as enemy aliens but were under the protection of Max von Neumann. The family was scarcely touched by the war or its aftermath, including the short-lived but bloody communist regime of 1919. At that time, housing was âreallocated,â ostensibly on the basis of equal shares for all, and a Communist Party official came to assess the needs of the von Neumann family, who had a very large apartment. Nicholas Vonneumann recalled that his father left a bundle of British pound notes on the piano while the assessment wasbeing carried out. After the assessment, the money had gone and the family retained the apartment. 2 When things grew uncomfortable in Budapest, they simply went away to their summer home near Venice for a few weeks. Even so, the experience left Johnny von Neumann, who turned sixteen at the end of 1919, with a lifetime loathing of communism in all its forms.
Jancsi's high school education had begun almost at the same time as the war, in 1914, when he was ten. He attended the Lutheran Gymnasium in Budapest, an elite school famous for its mathematical teaching, where his talent was quickly appreciated
The simplest explanation is that Turing accidentally inhaled a lethal dose of cyanide just before going to bed. At the other extreme, conspiracy theorists have suggested that as a homosexual who knew too many secrets he was murdered on âofficialâ orders. Somewhere in between there is the coroner's verdict of suicide. But it is useless to speculate. What matters is that on the night of June 7, 1954, at the age of just forty-one, Alan Turing, the founder of modern computing, died as a result of ingesting cyanide.
The American approach to electronic computing, which Turing derided, was championed by John von Neumann (usually known as âJohnnyâ) who, as it happens, was actually born in Hungary as Neumann János Lajos (in Hungarian the family name comes first) or âJancsiâ to his family.
JANCSI
He was born in Budapest on December 28, 1903, the eldest son of a prosperous Jewish banker. His father had benefited from the general economic prosperity of Hungary following the turmoil of the 1860s which had led to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy out of the old Austrian Empire, and specifically from the easing of anti-Jewish restrictions and attitudes in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Originally Neumann Miksa (Max Neumann), in 1913 Jancsi's father acquired a hereditary title, ostensibly âfor meritorious service in the financial field,â although ithelped that he also made a substantial contribution to the state coffers. 1 As a result, he became Margittai Neumann Miksaâin German, Maximilian Neumann von Margitta, Margitta being the ancestral home of the Neumann family and also a play on the name of Max's wife, Margit. So Jancsi became Margittai Neumann János, in German Johann Neumann von Margitta, later simplified to Johann von Neumann, and in English, later still, Johnny von Neumann. As if that were not confusing enough, his two younger brothers, who like Johnny emigrated to the United States, each adopted a different version of the surname. Michael (originally Mihály) simply dropped the âvonâ and became Michael Neumann, while Nicholas (originally Miklós) added it to the surname to become Nicholas Vonneumann.
But all that lay far in the future when Jancsi, growing up in Budapest, was first showing signs of his unusual mental ability. He could recall, verbatim, the contents of any book that he read, and devoured the contents of his father's library. Initially the children were educated at home, benefiting from the attentions of both French and German governesses, with specialist tutors in other subjects. During the First World War, they learned English from two British men who had been interned as enemy aliens but were under the protection of Max von Neumann. The family was scarcely touched by the war or its aftermath, including the short-lived but bloody communist regime of 1919. At that time, housing was âreallocated,â ostensibly on the basis of equal shares for all, and a Communist Party official came to assess the needs of the von Neumann family, who had a very large apartment. Nicholas Vonneumann recalled that his father left a bundle of British pound notes on the piano while the assessment wasbeing carried out. After the assessment, the money had gone and the family retained the apartment. 2 When things grew uncomfortable in Budapest, they simply went away to their summer home near Venice for a few weeks. Even so, the experience left Johnny von Neumann, who turned sixteen at the end of 1919, with a lifetime loathing of communism in all its forms.
Jancsi's high school education had begun almost at the same time as the war, in 1914, when he was ten. He attended the Lutheran Gymnasium in Budapest, an elite school famous for its mathematical teaching, where his talent was quickly appreciated
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