Did a quick read of Common Sense Media’s review of the Imitation Game and despite the recommendation for kids at least 13 I took my nine-year old daughter.
As a parent of a gifted child I love sharing movies with her about people she can relate to. The movie’s about a geeky guy who got bullied in school and went on to basically win the war and save thousands of lives. Definition of a hero and pretty good guy.
She (me too!) is a Benedict Cumberbatch fan thanks to Sherlock. She also likes codes so this seemed like it would be a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
The movie provides opportunities for conversation ranging from bullying, wartime ethics, and how movies may play fast and loose with facts in order to tell a better story.
We came home and of course she wanted to know more about Alan Turing.
Here are seven interesting things we learned.
- The second most influential Princeton alumni of all time. He came in second behind only President James Madison. High praise.
- He was at Princeton the same time Albert Einstein was at the Institute for Advanced Study which was housed on the campus.
- Turing studied at Cambridge University and elected a fellow at the young age of 22.
- Developed the Turing Test for machine intelligence assessment: if an observer cannot tell whether they are interacting with a human or machine, the machine is intelligent.
- The computer room at King’s College at Cambridge University is the Turing Room.
- The Association for Computing Machinery gives the annual Turing Award to “an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community”. An announcement in November 2014 that the funding for the Turing Award increased to $1,000,000 and is provided by Google. Wow!
- Suspected of having Asperger’s Syndrome.
Have you seen the Imitation Game? What did you think? Will you take your kids to see it?