The Imitation Game and Shannon and
Weaver model of communication.
The Imitation Game is a historical drama that
explores the role that cryptologists and mathematicians played in World War
II. the Oscar-nominated movie focuses
on Alan Turing’s (1912-1954) heroics in World War II, when he worked for the
British intelligence service and played the key role in breaking the German
“Enigma” code.
Alan Turing, is considered as the father of theoretical
computer science and artificial intelligence. He was famously known for the
“Turing Machine”, which he invented that could be considered as the pioneer
model of general-purpose computer.
Alan Turing
The film begins in the midst of World War II, where the
British forces were facing heavy causalities at the bombing hands of Nazi
German forces. Allied forces were facing the dilemma of decoding the
intercepted German messages. It was done manually and everyday the Germans were
changing their encryption code, proving it was impossible for the British
cryptographers to decipher the messages.
As the communication
modalities would show that communication takes place through various basic elements
of communication. These basic elements determine the state of the message from
the source to the recipient.
Claude Elwood Shannon, who is known as the “Father
of information theory”, lists these Basic elements of communication[2]
as;
- ·
Source: Shannon calls this element the
"information source", which "produces a message or sequence of
messages to be communicated to the receiving terminal."
- ·
Sender: Shannon calls this element the
"transmitter", which "operates on the message in some way to
produce a signal suitable for transmission over the channel
- ·
Channel: For Shannon, the channel is
"merely the medium used to transmit the signal from transmitter to
receiver."
- ·
Receiver: For Shannon, the receiver
"performs the inverse operation of that done by the transmitter,
reconstructing the message from the signal."
- ·
Destination: For Shannon, the destination
is "the person (or thing) for whom the message is intended".
- ·
Message: The message is a concept,
information, communication, or statement that is sent in a verbal, written,
recorded, or visual form to the recipient.
- ·
Feedback
- ·
Entropic[3] elements, positive and
negative
The clear difference in the later model is
that, they find factors which affecting the communication process called
“Noise”.
This article aims to use “Shannon-Weaver model
of communication”, to explore the application of the communication elements in
the film “The Imitation Games”.
The main idea in this film is decoding the
“Enigma” code. The Message is originated from the Nazi command center somewhere
in Germany and was sent through a channel to the receiver who is at the end
waiting for the command to unleash the attack on the Allied forces. Although it
sounds simple the British intelligence interceptors found it hard to decrypt
the Nazi messages. It’s because the Germans were not communicating in a liner
way between them. They adopted encrypting method to mask the messages from
being decoded. To which they invented a machine called “Enigma”.
Enigma Machine
This encryption of messages takes the discourse
to another realm of communication, which is called “Cryptographic
Communication”. Cryptography is a method of protecting information
and communications through the use of codes, so that only those for whom the
information is intended can read and process it[5].
Cryptography refers to secure information and
communication techniques derived from mathematical concepts and a set of
rule-based calculations called algorithms, to transform messages in ways that
are hard to decipher.
“Hard to decipher”, is the dilemma that the
British forces were faced with during the WW2. In order to decipher the German
“Enigma” codes, the British intelligence service recruit Alan Turing, who laboring obsessively over the building of a code-breaking
machine.
The
Messages which originated at the Nazi command center, (information source) was
transmitted through “Enigma” channel, was intercepted on the linear line had to
be decoded. Final destination of the message was not the British intelligence
serve, so some special medium is needed in decoding the messages. The decoding
efforts were costing money and labour with no meaningful return.
Decoding
process kept failing because of the influence of “Noise”. As a factor affecting the process of
communication, daily changes in the encryption of the “Enigma” code altered the
attention of the cryptographers. The films show how disappointed they get when
the alarm goes off before the newly encrypted German messages to arrive.
The most
important aspect in understanding the message at the receiving end is that the
listener to be prepared to listen. It not hearing the noises but listening
attentively.
'Active
listening' means, as its name suggests, actively listening. That is fully
concentrating on what is being said rather than just passively ‘hearing’ the
message of the speaker.[6]
One of the
common barriers of listening is feeling unwell or tired. The cryptographers in
the film were fatigue to engage in Active listening to understand a common
trend in the intercepted messages. This
led to critically evaluating what is being said before fully understanding the
message that the speaker is trying to communicate. The result is that assumptions are made and
conclusions reached about the speaker's meaning, that might be inaccurate[7].
Alan Turing
found a genius way to address this fatigue in listeners and also to use a
machine to decode the machine encoded messages.
His “Turing Machine” could do mathematical calculations to decrypt the “Enigma”
codes in to understandable form of simple language message.
Turing Machine
Initially
Alan too finds himself focused more on programing the machine more than trying
to understand the messages. But when he meets this girl who works as a message
interceptor alongside a German Message interceptor opens his eyes for the need
to be ready to listen attentively to understand the message devoid of noise.
The
feedback from the messenger interceptor girl proved crucial in understanding
the messages. Shannon and Weaver model too puts its weight on the feedback so
is the other theories of communication. Feedback in communication is always
important in not only understand the message but also to originate new
messages.
Alan was
able to provide clearer message to colleagues in how to break the “Enigma” code
because of the feedback he receives from the message interceptor girl.
This
understanding gives Alan Turing the meaning for his life’s work, which is that
having computable number and using these numbers to compute complex
calculations, as the “human memory is necessarily limited[8]”
He was able
to program his machine effectively to break the “Enigma” code after, which
would in the end would provide much needed defense information’s for the allied
forces to defeat the Nazi forces.
The film
also shows that communication happens at all levels and being attentive
listener would make you an efficient communicator. You will need to communicate
clearly in order to work effectively with others. This includes communicating
clearly with colleagues at all levels in your organization and with people
external to your own organization. You must identify and minimize any barriers
to effective communication and convey information in a way that others will
understand. You may also need to check your own understanding of information
provided by others.
Although
Alan Turing fails in his personal life, he proved himself to be a good listener
and an efficient communicator in professional level. A real-life example on how
a communication theory can be applied in real life incidents.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_theory
accessed on April 17, 2021.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_theory
accessed on April 17, 2021.
[3] The
amount of order or lack of order in a system
[4] https://www.communicationtheory.org/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication/
accessed on April 17, 2021
[5] https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/cryptography#:~:text=Cryptography%20is%20a%20method%20of,"%20stands%20for%20"writing."
Accessed on April 17, 2021
[6]
Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html
[7] Read
more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html
[8] ON COMPUTABLE NUMBERS, WITH
AN APPLICATION TO THE ENTSCHEIDUNGSPROBLEM By A. M. TURING.
