Opinion articles

Alan Turing: A Hero Immortalized by Intelligence

World War II was, what might be called, “the triumph of intelligence over force“. Alan Turing, and a multidisciplinary team stationed at Bletchley Park, England, managed to decipher the cryptographic messages of the Germans, allowing the Red Army to win the Battle of Kursk, as well as diverting Germanic attention to the Normandy maritime incursion. Both events were triggers for the entry of the Russians into Berlin, putting an end to the war and, incidentally, avoiding the loss of a great number of lives, had the war event continued its course. Turing’s advances in cryptographic matters were the basis for the “information age”, the successor of the industrial age, which in turn was the pillar of the technologies developed later, on which today’s economy rests. Their legacy extends to modern and efficient means of payment, such as crypto assets, which in many countries cover the lack of access to credit suffered by a high percentage of their population. They do so through the use of intelligent devices with Internet access, resources that fortunately many do have. Someday Turing’s memory will be remembered for his immense contribution to humanity, saving lives and building the foundations of the development we know today.