Today is Alan Turing’s birthday, and I’m sharing something special to honor him. Turing was a mathematician, a codebreaker, and a pioneer of computer science. His ideas changed the world, but the world struggled to accept him.
The Cost of Thinking is my tribute to both his mind and his humanity. In the final scene, Joan asks: “Can we? Can we think beyond fear, beyond prejudice?” That’s the question this play leaves with you.
The Cost of Thinking: A Play Inspired by the Life of Alan Turing
Characters:
Alan Turing: British mathematician and cryptanalyst
Christopher Morcom: Turing’s close friend in school
Joan Clarke: Fellow cryptanalyst and close friend
Scene 1
Setting: A quiet school hallway. 1920s.
(Alan sits in a corner, sketching in his notebook. Christopher enters.)
CHRISTOPHER: You’re always hiding in here.
YOUNG ALAN: (without looking up) I’m not hiding. I’m thinking.
CHRISTOPHER: (sitting beside him) Thinking about what?
YOUNG ALAN: Patterns. How everything in nature follows one. The turning of seasons, the drift of stars, bees building perfect hexagons. Everything except for people. They act without logic.
CHRISTOPHER: (laughs) That’s because people have feelings, Alan. Feelings don’t make sense. That’s kind of the point. People are unpredictable. Messy. Infuriating sometimes. But also impossible not to care about.
YOUNG ALAN: That’s what makes them exhausting.
(A pause. Alan draws a circle, then a box. Still not looking up.)
YOUNG ALAN: Sometimes I wonder... what if I could build something that thinks properly? A machine that thinks faster than humans, and sees the truth in all the noise. It wouldn’t have fear or bias. Its thinking would follow a pattern, not feelings.
