While Benedict Cumberbatch and “The Imitation Game” have brought welcome attention to the role of Alan Turing and his fellow codebreakers in World War II, there is much the film missed. The real secret weapon that helped England escape defeat -- more than radar, Bletchley Park, or the help of the Allies (and the Russians) -- was the British sense of humor. Alan Turing had an acute sense of humor, many friends, and was a vital team player as well as a lone genius. It is a disservice not only to Turing's memory but to the stereotype of mathematicians and coders everywhere to de-socialize him. Also, there was never any proof of his suicide. The original post-mortem is positive for massive cyanide poisoning but lists "death by violence" -- the case is not closed.

GEORGE DYSON is a historian of technology whose books have reflected a wide range of interests including the development (and redevelopment) of the Aleut kayak (Baidarka, 1986), the evolution of artificial intelligence (Darwin Among the Machines, 1997), and a path not taken into space (Project Orion, 2002). His recent Turing’s Cathedral (2012) illuminates the transition from numbers that mean things to numbers that do things in the aftermath of World War II.