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From: tim.whitley@cray.com (Tim Whitley)
Subject: Re: Roger Penrose's new book
Message-ID: <tim.whitley-2410941042570001@ithaka.cray.com>
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Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
References: <1994Oct21.084708.23299@driftwood.cray.com> <AST.153.782950009@postman.hsn.no> <mack.782955295@redwood007> <Cy6983.oHB@nyongwa.montreal.qc.ca>
Date: 24 Oct 94 10:43:10 CDT
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:24797 comp.robotics:14700


> : I think Turing was also famous for breaking the codes generated by the
> : German's 'Enigma' machine during world war II but I could be wrong.
> 
> I'm no WW2 history expert, but i think the Enigma was AMERICAN! not German. 
> (or atleast that's what i've heard on t.v.)

No, indeed.  Enigma WAS a German code machine.  Alan Turing was a British
mathematician involved in breaking its code.  I believe that the Americans
and British purchased versions of the Enigma hardware, but the code
"software" remained a problem until cracked.  It has been suggested, as
the documents have been declassified over recent years, that many of the
Allied victories were not so much due to superior generalship, but due to
foreknowledge of the Germans' plans.  This foreknowledge came from knowing
the Germans' code!  Of course, it would be bad generalship to have yet not
use such information.  But the converse is not necessarily true.  

Tim

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 Tim Whitley, Cray Research, Inc.  ((  tim.whitley@cray.com        
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