Cardiff University regularly holds sciScreen events which screen a film then features presentations and a discussion on the issues raised. For more information on events at Cardiff University click here.
The most recent event was a screening of The Imitation Game, a film about Alan Turing, who helped end WWII by cracking the enigma machine. This blog post will summarise some of the points made during the presentations and discussion.
Firstly was Alison Parken talking on inequality. She highlighted how The Imitation Game tackles both homophobia and sexism through the characters of Alan and Joan, and how they are drawn together because they are both outsiders. Furthermore, the only way for them to resolve this outsider status seems to be to normalise themselves by becoming engaged. Sadly, Parken emphasised how little things have changed since the 1940s as there is still widespread normalised gender-bias when it comes to employment and skills.
Next, Harry Collins discussed Turing tests and imitation games. He noted how the initial imitation games were not to detect a human (as opposed to a machine) but were based on gender (men pretending to be women and vice versa). Collins went on to talk of more recent imitation games concerning religion, sexuality and blindness. Apparently blind people are far better at passing as being sighted, than sighted people pretending to be blind. Also, in terms of sexuality it is clear that in homophobic regions heterosexual men are much less likely to be able to pass as a homosexual man than in more equal countries. Lastly, Collins threw out a controversial conspiracy theory (that apparently has some merit) that Turing was murdered, rather than committing suicide, as he was a security threat.
The third speaker was Andrew Edgar, speaking on moral philosophy and the blitz. Edgar centred in on the point in the film where the group have cracked the code and can read the German messages, but they must keep it a secret lest the Germans find out and devise a new code. This then seemingly shifts the moral responsibility onto Turing and co. for failing to prevent deaths, even though they did not incite them. Finally, he talked about the tensions between rationality and emotion, and how although treating people as statistics (as in healthcare) may be a clear way to see the best course of action, it lacks emotional motivation.
Lastly was Vince Knight talking on women in mathematics. Like Alison Parken, Knight acknowledged how little things have changed since the period the film depicts. He announced that the first woman to win a mathematics field medal was in 2014. However, Knight insisted that despite their lack of recognition, women have always been involved in mathematics and science. Although Turing is often credited as being the inventor of the computer, a woman was the first to write a computer algorithm, in the 1800s. And to end, a little trivia that the term ‘debug’ comes from literally having to remove a moth from the computer.
The next sciSCREEN event is Silver Linings Playbook. It’s already booked up but you can put your name on the wait list so if anyone drops out you’ll be contacted to take their place.
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