Bear remarks that "there is an angry parable based on the life of the English mathematician Alan Turing" in "Tangents." Turing created in the 1930s and 1940s what is now called the "Turing machine," a device capable of making any mathematical calculation that became one of the inspirations for digital computers. Turing was a cryptographer during World War II who worked to break the codes of the Axis powers. Part of his work may have contributed to British victories in North Africa by cracking the code the German army was using in the field, thus helping British forces learn about German targets ahead of time.

Turing was interested in artificial intelligence, and his intellectual scope extended to applying mathematics to biology and psychology. His "Turing test" is still used on computers and computer software to determine a machine's ability to think independently of human influence.

Homosexuality...