Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
Alan Mathison Turing was a British mathematician, logician, and philosopher of mind who is widely regarded as the founder of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. His 1936 paper On Computable Numbers introduced the notion of a universal computing machine and gave the first sustained mathematical treatment of effective computation. His wartime work at Bletchley Park on the Enigma cipher contributed decisively to Allied victory. His 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence proposed the test that bears his name as a way of approaching the question whether machines can think. Persecuted for his homosexuality, he died at forty-one.
Key facts
- Nationality
- British
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Alan Turing:
“Can machines think?”
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Attributed to Alan Turing:
“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
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Attributed to Alan Turing:
“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.”
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Attributed to Alan Turing:
“Mathematical reasoning is the exercise of a combination of two faculties: intuition and ingenuity.”
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Attributed to Alan Turing:
“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”