Process

Process Paper

       

When we initially learned this year’s theme, we independently turned toward Turing and the Enigma as it interested us and related to Breaking Barriers in history. Having each seen The Imitation Game, a Hollywood movie on Turing’s experiences, we decided to work together on this project and draw from each others' strengths. We were interested to discover one man’s impact on such a great war.


   After gathering tertiary information, we conducted real research via books and databases like JSTOR through keyword identifications. Primary sources such as documents and narrations were abundant due to the fact that countless others have been inspired by the breaking of the German Enigma code. Ergo, these were preserved. Our primary and secondary sources helped us assert the fact that Turing’s contributions - his “bombe” - aided Allied causes in World War II. We inquired whether that particular invention later became a forerunner to modern computing, but upon further research, this concept was discarded. However, in doing so, our argument clicked. Both the Turing bombe and the Enigma machine made breakthroughs into the mechanization of human labor; both machines took over work that proved too complex for humans. Germany placed their trust in an “unbreakable” mechanical code, and Britain used a machine to search through all Enigma cipher possibilities, greatly reducing tedious codebreaking labor. David Alvarez, a diplomatic cryptanalyst, confirmed this well in our interview, further helping us understand the impact of the Turing bombe.

   We selected the website option because we decided our thesis would best be explained through visual representation and explanations while utilizing color aesthetics. Prior to creation, we meticulously organized all necessary information separately, including an initial word count. Although finding this year’s website builder challenging to navigate, several educational tutorials helped us to construct our website. After careful thought, we decided on grey and blood-red themes. While not intended to look “pretty,” it conveys the blood-red urgency of war and the grey hues of machinery. With each section, the red of the spacer-blocks fades, signifying the effect Turing's bombe had on the war.

   One beneficial challenge to our project was determining the exact wordings of our thesis. While we knew what our barrier was internally, it was surprisingly difficult to form it into words that perfectly communicated our thoughts. Thus, our thesis was constantly evolving. The informational barrier of the broken Enigma ciphers - the Allies’ need of German coded information - connects to the National History Day theme in a short-term manner since it impacted World War II in relatively short periods of time. However, our more subtle barrier is a timeless example of man using technology to solve challenges. Though more unrelated to our topic, it was interesting to discover how much Alan Turing, “the father of modern computer science,” would later impact the modern computer age, further contributing to human dependence on electronics to this day. Starting with his bombe machine, Turing left indelible fingerprints on today’s modern age - an age without this world war and an age of mechanical reliance.