Alan+Turing

was an English mathematician, logician, and [|cryptographer]. Alan Turing was based at [|Bletchley Park], [|Bletchley] in [|Buckinghamshire], while acting as the leading cryptanalyst of German ciphers during the [|World War II]. He was the central force in continuing to break the [|Enigma machine]   , and to crack the [|Lorenz cipher] (codenamed "Tunny").
 * Home * People * Alan Turing**
 * [[image:Alan_Turing_photo.jpg link="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alan_Turing_photo.jpg"]] ||~  || **Alan Mathison Turing**, (23 June 1912–7 June 1954)

Alan Turing was one of the pioneers of the [|information theory] and computer science. He was highly influential in its development, giving a formalization of the concepts of "algorithm" and "[|computation]" with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a [|general purpose computer]. || toc =Photos=  =Turing Machine= [|Turing machines] are abstract symbol-manipulating devices which can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, described in 1936 by Alan Turing, as thought experiment about the limits of mechanical computation. An example of a concrete Turing machine is the [|Busy beaver].
 * Alan Turing ||~  ||^   ||
 * [[image:ratioclub-brindley_etal.jpg link="http://1heckofaguy.com/2006/11/01/more-to-know-about-yesterdays-someone-you-should-knowgiles-brindley/"]] ||
 * [|Ratio Club] at [|Cambridge] 1952, [|Giles Brindley] (yellow), [|Donald MacKay] (red), Alan Turing (green) ||

The [|Universal Turing machine] can simulate an arbitrary Turing machine on arbitrary input, and can be considered as the origin of the John von Neumann [|architecture]. A universal Turing machine can calculate any recursive function, decide any [|recursive language], and accept any [|recursively enumerable language]. According to the [|Church-Turing thesis], the problems solvable by a universal Turing machine are exactly those problems solvable by an algorithm or an effective method of computation, for any reasonable definition of those terms. For these reasons a system that can simulate a universal Turing machine is called [|Turing complete].  =Turing Test= Turing addressed the problem of artificial intelligence, and proposed an experiment now known as the [|Turing test], an attempt to define a standard for a machine to be called "intelligent".

=Chess and Go= Alan Turing used chess-playing as an example of what a computer could do. Along with David Champernowne he specified a chess playing algorithm, implemented as "paper machine" dubbed Turochamp. Since there was no machine yet that could execute the instructions, he did himself, acting as a human CPU requiring more than half an hour per move. One game is recorded, which Turing's "paper machine" lost to one of his colleagues, [|Alick Glennie]. At the University of Manchester, Turing began programming Turochamp, as well as Michie's and Wylie's program Machiavelli, to run on a Ferranti Mark 1 computer, but could not complete them.

Could one make a machine?
In his 1953 paper 'Chess' in [|Bowden's] //Faster Than Thought//, Turing asks some questions, answered and discussed them, mentioning evaluation features, the concepts of minimax strategy, variable look-ahead, quiescence and learning. He does not explicitly mention the name Turochamp, but the 'Machine', and its game versus a human. To these we may add two further questions, unconnected with chess, which are likely to be on the tip of the reader's tongue.
 * When one is asked 'Could one make a machine to play chess?', there are several possible meanings which might be given to the words. Here are a few:
 * Could one make a machine which would obey the rules of chess, i.e. one which would play random legal moves, or which could tell one whether a given move is a legal one?
 * Could one make a machine which would solve chess problems, e.g. tell one whether, in a given position, white has a forced mate in three?
 * Could one make a machine which would play a reasonable good game of chess, i.e. which, confronted with an ordinary (that i, not particularly unusual) chess position, would after two or three minutes of calculation, indicate a passably good legal move?
 * Could one make a machine to play chess, and to improve its play, game by game, profiting from its experience?
 * Could one make a machine which would answer questions put to it, in such a way that it would not be possible to distinguish its answers from those of a man?
 * Could one make a machine which would have feelings like you and I do? ||

Andrew Hodges
[|Andrew Hodges] in the //Alan Turing Scrapbook - the Origins of Artificial Intelligence// :

||

Jack Good
Jack Good in 1998 :

=Punishment and Death= Turing was just 41 years old when he committed suicide, two years after undergoing a court-ordered [|chemical castration]. He had been found guilty of gross indecency for having a [|homosexual] relationship. The punishment in 1952 was either a prison sentence or chemical castration. Turing chose the latter. In September 2009 the British government has issued a formal apology for the way Alan Turning was treated.

=See also=
 * Alan Turing webcast from Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum
 * David Champernowne
 * Ferranti Mark 1
 * History of Computer Chess
 * Konrad Zuse
 * Turochamp

=Selected Publications=

1936 ...

 * Alan Turing (**1936**). //On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem//. [|pdf]

1940 ...

 * Alan Turing (**1949**). //[|Alan Turing's Manual for the Ferranti Mk. I]//. transcribed in 2000 by [|Robert Thau], [|pdf] from The Computer History Museum

1950 ...

 * Alan Turing (**1950**). //[|Computing Machinery and Intelligence]//. Mind, 59, 433-460. [|pdf] from The Computer History Museum
 * Alan Turing (**1951**). //[|Programmers' Handbook for the Manchester Electronic Computer Mark II]//. 1st edition
 * Alan Turing (**1952**). //[|Programmers' Handbook for the Manchester Electronic Computer Mark II]//. 2nd edition, revised by [|R.A. Brooker]
 * Alan Turing (**1953**). //**Chess**//. part of the collection //Digital Computers Applied to Games//. in [|Bertram Vivian Bowden] (editor), //[|Faster Than Thought]//, a symposium on digital computing machines, reprinted 1988 in Computer Chess Compendium, reprinted 2004 in Chapter 16 of //The Essential Turing// ...

1990 ...

 * Edward Feigenbaum (**1996**). //How the “What“ Becomes the “How“//. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 39, No. 5, [|pdf] hosted by The Computer History Museum

2000 ...

 * Jack Good (**2000**). //[|Turing’s anticipation of emprical Bayes in connection with the cryptanalysis of the naval enigma]//. [|Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation], Vol. 66, No. 2
 * Alan Turing, [|B. Jack Copeland] (editor) (**2004**). //The Essential Turing, Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life plus The Secrets of Enigma//. [|Oxford University Press], [|amazon], [|google books]

2010 ...

 * [|B. Jack Copeland], [|Diane Proudfoot] (**2011-2012**). //[|Turing, Father of the Modern Computer]//. [|The Rutherford Journal - The New Zealand Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology], Vol. 4 » with photos of Alan Turing, John von Neumann, Dietrich Prinz, Christopher Strachey, Jack Good, Arthur Samuel, Herbert Simon, Allen Newell, ...
 * Andrew Appel (ed.) (**2012**). //[|Alan Turing's Systems of Logic: The Princeton Thesis]//. [|Princeton University Press]
 * Guy McCrossan Haworth (**2013**). //Turing, Kasparov and the Future//. ICGA Journal, Vol. 36, No. 1 » Turochamp
 * Kieran Greer (**2014**). //Turing: Then, Now and Still Key//. [|arXiv:1403.2541]

=Forum Posts=
 * [|How did Alan Turing's program work?] by Pete Galati, CCC, April 20, 2000
 * [|Finally Science Meets Computer Chess XI (Turing)] by Phil Innes, rgcc, November 11, 2001

=External Links=
 * [|Alan Turing from Wikipedia]
 * [|Alan Turing - Wikiquote]
 * [|Turing Award from Wikipedia] by the ACM
 * Alan Turing from enigma wiki
 * [|The Mind and the Computing Machine] edited by [|B. Jack Copeland], from [|The Rutherford Journal - The New Zealand Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology]
 * [|Alan Turing] by Jürgen Schmidhuber
 * [|Turing letter to W. Ross Ashby] from [|William Ross Ashby's] [|Digital Archive]
 * [|Alan Turing] from The Computer History Museum
 * [|Computer und Schach: "Die goldene Gans, die niemals schnattert"] by [|André Schulz], [|Spiegel Online], November 12, 2003 (German)
 * [|Alan Turing] by [|André Schulz], June 07, 2004, ChessBase Nachrichten (German)
 * [|Alan Turing: "I am building a brain." Half a century later, its successor beat Kasparov] by [|Professor S. Barry Cooper], [|The Northerner | UK news], [|guardian.co.uk]
 * [|Alan Turing: why the tech world's hero should be a household name] by [|Vint Cerf], [|BBC News], June 18, 2012
 * [|Alan Turing: Inquest's suicide verdict 'not supportable'] by [|Roland Pease], [|BBC News], June 23, 2012
 * [|Spies and Spymasters > Second World War  > Alan Turing] from [|Spartacus Educational]
 * [|Chess and the Code-Breakers] by [|Edward Winter]

Turing Machine

 * [|Turing machine from Wikipedia]
 * [|Universal Turing machine from Wikipedia]
 * [|Church-Turing thesis]
 * [|Turing completeness from Wikipedia]

Devices and Computers
> [|Pilot ACE from Wikipedia]
 * [|Bombe from Wikipedia]
 * [|Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) from Wikipedia]
 * [|Manchester Mark 1 from Wikipedia] » Ferranti Mark 1

Turing Test

 * [|Turing test from Wikipedia]
 * [|Numb3rs 517: First Law]
 * [|Loebner Prize from Wikipedia]

Turing Archive

 * [|AlanTuring.net - The Turing Archive for the History of Computing]
 * [|Early AI Programs from AlanTuring.net] by [|B. Jack Copeland]

Andrew Hodges

 * [|Alan Turing: Primary Sources], notes by [|Andrew Hodges], author of [|Alan Turing: the Enigma]
 * [|Alan Turing - Home Page] maintained by [|Andrew Hodges], author of [|Alan Turing: the Enigma]
 * [|The Alan Turing Internet Scrapbook] maintained by [|Andrew Hodges], author of [|Alan Turing: the Enigma]

Literature

 * [|Books on Alan Turing] from [|amazon.com]
 * [|Andrew Hodges], [|Alan Turing: the Enigma]
 * [|Christof Teuscher] - [|My Books on Alan Turing]

Turing Year 2012
> Jürg Nievergelt //Known or wanted: chess matches between Man and machine//. > Raúl Rojas //Turing and Zuse//.
 * [|Alan Turing Year from Wikipedia]
 * [|The Alan Turing Year - 2012 Turing Centenary]
 * [|Eminent & enigmatic - 10 aspects of Alan Turing], the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, [|Flyer as pdf] including abstracts of lectures
 * [|Turing Jahr 2012 - Alan Turing Year 2012], [|Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V] (German)
 * [|Donald Knuth in Alan Turing Year] from [|I Programmer - programming, reviews and projects], January 10, 2012 » Donald Knuth
 * [|Alan Turing Year (alanturingyear)] at [|Twitter]
 * [|ACM A.M. Turing Centenary Celebration]
 * [|The Alan Turing Centenary Conference Manchester UK], June 22-25, 2012, hosted by the University in Manchester

Movies
> featuring Marvin Minsky,  [|Andrew Hodges], [|Norman Routledge], Jack Good, Shaun Wylie, [|Joan Clarke], [|Robin Gandy] et al. > media type="youtube" key="gyusnGbBSHE" width="560" > media type="youtube" key="5LHFzNMgWzw" width="560" > media type="youtube" key="S5CjKEFb-sM"
 * [|The Strange Life and Death of Dr Turing], [|BBC] [|TV science series Horizon] (1992), [|YouTube] Videos
 * [|Breaking the Code (1996)] (TV)
 * [|Codebreaker (2011)] - [|Channel 4], [|Official Site]
 * [|The Imitation Game (2014)] - Official Trailer - [|The Weinstein Company], [|YouTube] Video

=References= =What links here?= include page="Alan Turing" component="backlinks" limit="100"
 * Up one level**