At over 700 pages it is a solid read, and get's quite technical for pages on end in places, particulalry when it describes mathematical and scientific conversations, research, programming and so on. It does help you notice the liberties that bio-movies take, even when purporting to tell a 'real' story. "The Imagination Game" was enjoyable, but an impressionist rather than a precise sketch.
It is, however, interesting to learn a little about what makes a person tick, particularly if they don't easily 'fit' comfortably into the social norms and conventions of their day. How does such an enigma shape the world we now live in? It's often the least likely, those who don't fit in who can best imagine a new reality. As Turing himself said: “Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of, who do the things no one can imagine.”
I found it remarkable how a quiet, thoughtful misfit and loner could so clearly imagine the electronic world we live in - quite the extreme INTJ!
To quote Turing in the late 1940s: “I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”
“It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.”
To quote Turing in the late 1940s: “I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”
“It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.”
