Turing being hyperbolic: his response to MORCOM's idea that 'talking' is not secretive

Speranza

 

YOUNG ALAN

What’s that you’re reading?

Christopher shows him: “A Guide to Codes and Cyphers.”

CHRISTOPHER

It’s about cryptography.

YOUNG ALAN

What’s cryptography?

CHRISTOPHER

It’s complicated. You wouldn’t

understand.

 

39.

 

YOUNG ALAN

I’m only fourteen months younger

than you. Don’t treat me like a

child.

CHRISTOPHER

Cryptography is the science of

codes.

YOUNG ALAN

Like secret messages?

CHRISTOPHER

 

Not secret. That’s the brilliant

part. Messages that anyone can see,

but no one knows what they mean,

unless you have the key.

YOUNG ALAN

(confused)

How is that different from talking?

CHRISTOPHER

Talking?

YOUNG ALAN

When people talk to each other they

never say what they mean. They say

something else. And you’re supposed

to just know what they mean. Only,

I never do. So how is that

different?

CHRISTOPHER

(handing him the book)

Alan, I have a funny feeling that

you’re going to be very good at

this.

 
ANALYSIS:

YOUNG ALAN: What’s that you’re reading?

 

[A more ironic Morcom would say, "A book". It's a little surprising that Turing does not know BY THEN what book his friend he's been sitting with is reading].

Christopher shows him: “A Guide to Codes and Cyphers.”

 

The screenplay contains this typo on ciphers. Ascribed to Professor I. Scott.

 

CHRISTOPHER

It’s about cryptography.

YOUNG ALAN

What’s cryptography?

CHRISTOPHER

It’s complicated. You wouldn’t

understand.

 ---- Note the 'would'. As opposed to the ruder: You won't understand. Oddly, Turing uses the indicative in a couple of answers to Denniston. And Denniston's heirs have complained that he is badly portrayed in the film, as not understanding one thing.

 

 

YOUNG ALAN

I’m only fourteen months younger

than you. Don’t treat me like a

child.

CHRISTOPHER

Cryptography is the science of

codes.

----- [In fact, 'krypto-' etymologically does seem to make reference to secrecy -- cfr. Grice on 'anti-sneak' clause, etc.]

YOUNG ALAN

Like secret messages?

CHRISTOPHER

 

Not secret.

 

------ Turing is using a comparative: "LIKE secret MESSAGES?". He is not saying that kryptography IS secret messages. Oddly, Grice uses krypto once, when he lectured on Peirce. He called Peirce krypto-technical, and proposed to use 'mean' everytime Peirce comes with a neologism of his like 'symbol', 'index', and 'sign'.

 

----- But what about 'message'? MORCOM does not answer that part of the comparison.

 

 

MORCOM: That’s the brilliant

part. Messages that anyone can see,

but no one knows what they mean,

unless you have the key."

 

Messages are not just seen. They can be heard. E.g. 'smoke' beyond those hills, means the native Americans are having a ceremony to invoke rain. This is a seen message. But a thunderbolt, provoked by Zeus, if you believe in Greek mythology, may be a message, heard, to the effect, that Zeus is angry. In fact, in conversation, messages are heard, more often than seen, although there's body language and such.

 

----- So MORCOM's claim may be rephrased:

There's the realm of implication. Utterers express things explicitly. But their expressions mean one thing, while the utterer may mean something else.

 

------"no one knows what they mean unless you have the key" may be a good definition of the 'krypto-' part. I was recently reading "Attic Nights", and the writer recalls a method of sending messages via a slave. He would have the message imprinted on the slave's skull, and let some pass time, so that hair covers the head. So unless you have the key ("cut this slave-messenger's hair, and you'll read my message inscribed on his skull", you won't know what it means my having sent the messenger in the first place.

 

Another example is the well-known adage quoted by Grice:

 

"Peccavi I've Sinde" wrote Lord Ellen so proud.

More briefly Dalhousie wrote "Vovi— I've Oude."

 

Note that the message is "Peccavi", implicating that Ellen had Scinde.

 

The next move in the implicature game is just Vovi", implicating that Dalhousie had Oudh.

 

-----

 

But here comes Turing's overreaction or hyperbole:

 

YOUNG ALAN

(confused)

How is that different from talking?

CHRISTOPHER

Talking?

 

---- What Grice would have have as 'conversation'. At that time, when Grice was lecturing, Nowell-Smith was speaking of 'contextual implications', and Grice thought 'conversational implicature' made for a nicer idiom. It did!

YOUNG ALAN

"When people talk to each other they

never say what they mean."

 

The 'never' is hyperbolic and has a Dodgsonian ring to it.

 

---- CARROLLIAN INTERLUDE on 'mean' and 'say':

 

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he SAID was, 'Why is a raven like a writing–desk?'

'Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. 'I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.—I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud.

------
'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare.
'Exactly so,' said Alice.

'Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.

'I do,' Alice hastily replied; 'at least—at least I mean what I say—that's the same thing, you know.'
'Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. 'You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!'
'You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, 'that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!'
'You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, 'that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!'
'It IS the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped,

 

---- end of interlude:

 

TURING:

 

They say

something else. And you’re supposed

to just know what they mean. Only,

I never do. So how is that

different?

 

------ Strange that he says he never does. But he has a THEORY (Griceian) for it! Some NOT knowing.

 

It's best though to deal with this as MORCOM being taught by TURING that there's the realm of implication.

By uttering expression E (which means 'p'), an utterer may explicitly communicate (rather than say) that p; yet he may implicitly communicate that q.

 

Grice often complained that this simple distinction was usually ignored by Austin, and NEVER acknowledged by Witters!

 

------

 

CHRISTOPHER

(handing him the book)

Alan, I have a funny feeling that

you’re going to be very good at

this.

 ----- implicature: because you'll see that there's kryptography in the air, as it were!