The Bentley Blog

 

Alan Turing’s involvement in Furniture Sliders and with the Mirror is entirely fictional. Based on this fictional involvement, he does, however, provide a notable storyline thread throughout the book. Turing was one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century and his contributions in so many areas cannot be over-emphasized or over-stated. He was a pioneer in cryptography, computational theory, and artificial intelligence, making him an ideal candidate to have contributed in some way to the development of a fictional time-bending device like the Mirror in the Furniture Sliders universe. 

While Turing did not work on time manipulation or any similar technologies in his lifetime, his expertise in cryptography, computing, and his groundbreaking ideas on machines and mathematical logic made his involvement with a fictional device like the Mirror plausible in a speculative or alternate-history narrative. Turing’s work on the Turing Machine, a theoretical model for a computer, focused on the idea of algorithmic computation. This was the idea that any complex process can be broken down into simple, definable steps and it was revolutionary. In the fictional context, the Mirror could be conceived as a highly advanced computational device that breaks down and manipulates time, with Turing's concept of a machine capable of performing endless calculations at its core. 

In Furniture Sliders Turing is portrayed as the theoretical mind that helped Hawthorne in his quest for a time-manipulation device that uses advanced computational principles to "process" time itself as data. His work in computational theories could be extrapolated to posit that time is not a linear progression but rather a calculable system that can be understood and manipulated in a similar way to how he understood and manipulated algorithms. In Furniture Sliders, Turing was a key figure in deciphering and cracking the mechanisms behind the Mirror’s operation, in the same way that he had cracked the Enigma codes to reveal hidden intelligence during the war. This led to his strong fear of what the Mirror was and could achieve, and why he walked away from it giving Hawthorne warnings about what it might be capable of doing.

Turing's work on the Turing Test, which involves evaluating whether a machine can exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from human actions, likely contributed to the creation of the artificial intelligence systems within the Mirror. Following the panpsychism theory, the Mirror was described as having its own "consciousness"—an evolving artificial intelligence that is capable of manipulating time and interpreting the effects of time travel or temporal anomalies. Furniture Sliders portrays Turing as trying to determine whether the Mirror’s time-manipulating effects were self-aware or whether it was just an advanced mechanical tool. It added an additional layer of intrigue to the device, making it not just a time-altering mechanism, but also a philosophical puzzle.

Turing, in real life, faced the ethical dilemma of being involved in technology that could change the course of history. In the Furniture Sliders fictional narrative, Turing’s involvement with the Mirror raised moral questions about manipulating time, the potential risks of altering reality, and whether such power should ever be placed in the hands of governments, scientists, or individuals. Turing’s own internal conflict about his involvement with such a device added depth to his character and motivations, reflecting his historical conflict over his own government’s treatment of him and his moral compass.