A rare color postcard sent by English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist Alan Turing to a psychiatrist friend in Manchester will be auctioned by the Boston-based RR Auction.
The postcard, which is addressed to Jungian psychologist Dr. Franz Greenbaum and his children, was sent by Turing from his Club Mediterranee holiday on Corfu, on July 23, 1953.
The greeting on one side reads: “I hope you are all enjoying your selves as well as I am here at Corfu. It is tremendously hot and one wears bathing things all day.”
The front of the postcard depicts an illuminated manuscript cover of Josephus Flavius’ Antiquities of the Jews.
First-century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, who commanded the Jewish forces in Galilee against the Romans during the rebellion of the year 70. In computer science, “Josephus’ Problem” refers to Josephus’ tale of how he survived a suicide pact at the end of the Siege of Yodfat. He and his soldiers, facing inevitable defeat, agreed on an unusual suicide pact rather than surrender. They stood in a circle, and each soldier killed the man to his left. Josephus, the commander, arranged this pattern so it would result in himself being the sole survivor.
The problem is: how could one determine where to position oneself in order to remain the last man standing?
Robert Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction, said that “Turing, who was fascinated by these types of algorithmic puzzles, surely knew of the ‘Josephus Problem’ and it is likely the reason he chose this specific postcard.”
Sara Turing’s 1959 biography of her son says he “normally shirked letter-writing,” which is why today his autograph is very scarce.