Alan Turing
The pioneer of computer science, Alan Turing
Introduction
Alan Mathison Turing(1912-1954) is one of the most intelligent scientists in the world, who is not only famous as a war savor but also a computer scientist. During the Second World War, Turing successfully cracked the German Enigma ciphers and turned the scale of the war, saving thousands of livings. Thanks to the celebration of Turing’s centenary in 2012, nowadays, the name of Alan Turing is universally known as the pioneer of computer science and the pioneer of artificial intelligence worldwide while his achievements also involve in mathematics, logistic, cryptanalysis and philosophy. The A.M. Turing Award, named after Alan Turing, represents the most valuable and prestigious prize of computer science community and also is known as the “Nobel Prize of computing”, which now is financially supported by Google.
Although there are several disagreements about the Turing’s title ‘Father of Computer’, due to the fact that Turing did not technically invent a real machine or get involved in any process of it. However, as far as I am concerned, even if it was pure theory of computer, Alan Turing had already changed the world. Two articles represented and finally determined the status of Alan Turing in computer science. The first one ‘On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem’ was published in 1936 when Turing was studying PhD in Princeton University, which drew a conclusion that there is not a general solution to Entscheidungsproblem and first raised the idea of ‘Universal Machine’ (also named as Universal Turing Machine in present time). More importantly, the other one is the landmark of artificial intelligence called ‘Computer Machinery and Intelligence’ published in 1950. This paper proposed the concept of ‘Thinking Machine’ and the most famous hypothesis, ‘Turing Test’. This essay will focus on the causes and impacts of the two papers as well as Turing’s life-time efforts and
Introduction
Alan Mathison Turing(1912-1954) is one of the most intelligent scientists in the world, who is not only famous as a war savor but also a computer scientist. During the Second World War, Turing successfully cracked the German Enigma ciphers and turned the scale of the war, saving thousands of livings. Thanks to the celebration of Turing’s centenary in 2012, nowadays, the name of Alan Turing is universally known as the pioneer of computer science and the pioneer of artificial intelligence worldwide while his achievements also involve in mathematics, logistic, cryptanalysis and philosophy. The A.M. Turing Award, named after Alan Turing, represents the most valuable and prestigious prize of computer science community and also is known as the “Nobel Prize of computing”, which now is financially supported by Google.
Although there are several disagreements about the Turing’s title ‘Father of Computer’, due to the fact that Turing did not technically invent a real machine or get involved in any process of it. However, as far as I am concerned, even if it was pure theory of computer, Alan Turing had already changed the world. Two articles represented and finally determined the status of Alan Turing in computer science. The first one ‘On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem’ was published in 1936 when Turing was studying PhD in Princeton University, which drew a conclusion that there is not a general solution to Entscheidungsproblem and first raised the idea of ‘Universal Machine’ (also named as Universal Turing Machine in present time). More importantly, the other one is the landmark of artificial intelligence called ‘Computer Machinery and Intelligence’ published in 1950. This paper proposed the concept of ‘Thinking Machine’ and the most famous hypothesis, ‘Turing Test’. This essay will focus on the causes and impacts of the two papers as well as Turing’s life-time efforts and