The Essential Turing

The ideas that gave birth to the computer age

Alan Turing, pioneer of computing and WWII codebreaker, was one of the most important and influential thinkers of the twentieth century. In this volume for the first time his key writings are made available to a broad, non-specialist readership. They make fascinating reading both in their own right and for their historic significance: contemporary computational theory, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and artificial life all spring from this ground-breaking work, which is also rich
in philosophical and logical insight.

The ideas that gave birth to the computer age Alan Turing, pioneer of computing and WWII codebreaker, was one of the most important and influential thinkers of the twentieth century. In this volume for the first time his key writings are made available to a broad, non-specialist readership. They make fascinating reading both in their own right and for their historic significance: contemporary computational theory, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and artificial life all spring from this ground-breaking work, which is also rich in philosophical and logical insight. An introduction by leading Turing expert Jack Copeland provides the background and guides the reader through the selection. The paperback is irresistibly priced for individual purchase.

The editor not only presents the Turing seminal papers and ingenious contributions to fields he was far ahead his time, he also gives easy access for non-specialists by his comprehensive introductions and comments.

Auteur

B. J. Copeland is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Texte du rabat

• Developed the mathematical theory upon, which all stored program digital computers are modeled

• Pioneered Artificial Intelligence

• Played an essential role in deciphering Enigma, the code used by the German High Command during the Second World War to protect their radio communications

• Founding father of modern cognitive science

Contenu

• Alan Turing 1912-1954

• Computable Numbers: A Guide

• 1: On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidensproblem (1936)

• 2: Alan Turing, Emil Post, and Donald W. Davies: On Computable Numbers: Corrections and Critiques

• 3: Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals (1938)

• 4: Letters on Logic to Max Newman (c. 1940)

• Enigma

• 5.: Patrick Mahon: History of Hut 8 to December 1941 (1845)

• 6: Bombe and Spider (1940)

• 7: Letter to Winston Churchill (1941)

• 8: Memorandum to OP-20-G on Naval Enigma (c. 1941)

• Artificial Intelligence

• 9: Lecture on the Automatic Computing Machine (1947)

• 10: Intelligent Machinery (1948)

• 11: Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

• 12: Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory (c. 1951)

• 13: Can Digital Computers Think?

• 14: Alan Turing, Richard Braithwaite, Geoffrey Jefferson, and Max Newman: Can Automatic Calculating Machines Be Said to Think? (1952)

• Artificial Life

• 15: The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis (1952)

• 16: Chess (1953)

• 17: Solvable and Unsolvable Problems (1954)