British actor Benedict Cumberbatch has made the front cover of Time magazine’s annual “genius” issue — in his movie role as code breaker Alan Turing.
In The Imitation Game, at a cinema near you now, he portrays the tragic hero of Bletchley Park, who was responsible for breaking the Nazi’s wartime code system, and is regarded as the father of the modern computer.
In a Q&A with the magazine, Cumberbatch reveals - as he has done in other interviews about the film - his admiration for Turing. “This man’s achievements are extraordinary,” he said.
“Everything that’s been thrown at computers—all of it has only managed to work because of his idea of creating something universal in the first place.” There’s a short video of his interview here.
Cumberbatch is something of a bio-pic star, having portrayed Stephen Hawking, Joseph Hooker, Werner Heisenberg and Julian Assange. Not all would qualify for the genius tag, of course. The actor has featured on a Time cover previously, in the international edition in October, 2013
Time also features an essay about Turing by its former editor, Walter Isaacson, the author of a new book, The Innovators.
He writes: “Turing’s heroic and tragic life provides a compelling counter to the concept that there might be no fundamental difference between our minds and machines.
“As we celebrate the cool inventions that sprouted this year, it’s useful to look back at the most important invention of our age, the computer, which along with its accoutrements, microchips and digital networks is the über innovation from which most subsequent Ubers and innovations were born.”
Source: Time
