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They make fascinating reading both in their own right and for their historic significance: An introduction by leading Turing expert Jack Copeland provides the background and guides the reader through the selection. He was elected a Fellow of King's in March , at the age of only In the same year he invented the abstract computing machines - now known simply as Turing machines - on which all subsequent stored-program digital computers are modelled. During Turing continued his studies, now at Princeton University.
He completed a PhD in mathematical logic, analysing the notion of 'intuition' in mathematics and introducing the idea of oracular computation, now fundamental in mathematical recursion theory. An 'oracle' is an abstract device able to solve mathematical problems too difficult for the universal Turing machine.
In the summer of Turing returned to his Fellowship at King's. Want to Read saving….
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Alan Turing was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. In , aged 22, he developed the mathematical theory upon which all subsequent stored-program digital computers are modeled. At the outbreak of hostilities with Germany in September , he joined the Government Codebreaking team at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire and played a crucial role in deci Alan Turing was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
At the outbreak of hostilities with Germany in September , he joined the Government Codebreaking team at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire and played a crucial role in deciphering Engima, the code used by the German armed forces to protect their radio communications. Turing's work on the version of Enigma used by the German navy was vital to the battle for supremacy in the North Atlantic. He also contributed to the attack on the cyphers known as "Fish," which were used by the German High Command for the encryption of signals during the latter part of the war.
His contribution helped to shorten the war in Europe by an estimated two years. Turing was also a founding father of modern cognitive science, theorizing that the cortex at birth is an "unorganized machine" which through "training" becomes organized "into a universal machine or something like it.
The papers in this book are the key works for understanding Turing's phenomenal contribution across all these fields. The collection includes Turing's declassified wartime "Treatise on the Enigma"; letters from Turing to Churchill and to codebreakers; lectures, papers, and broadcasts which opened up the concept of AI and its implications; and the paper which formed the genesis of the investigation of Artifical Life.
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To ask other readers questions about The Essential Turing , please sign up. See 1 question about The Essential Turing…. Lists with This Book. Dec 23, Ushan rated it really liked it Shelves: A collection of articles by Alan Turing on several topics, each with a lengthy preface and sometimes a few relevant articles by other people. The first topic is computability theory; Turing did not prove the existence of noncomputable functions by considering the Halting problem, but by using the Cantor diagonal argument; he also invented hypercomputation by considering Turing machines equipped with oracles.
The second topic is Turing's cryptanalytic work on breaking the German naval Engima, whi A collection of articles by Alan Turing on several topics, each with a lengthy preface and sometimes a few relevant articles by other people.
The second topic is Turing's cryptanalytic work on breaking the German naval Engima, which was one of the great engineering projects of the Second World War, alongside Manhattan project. The third topic is artificial intelligence, including the famous paper that introduces the Turing test; every student of computer science must read it.
Eric Eiffel rated it really liked it Nov 09, Based on binary teleprinter code, Fish was used during the latter part of the war in preference to morse-based Enigma for the encryption of high-level signals, for example messages from Hitler and other members of the German High Command. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Turing received the Order of the British Empire for the part he played. Choose your country or region Close. Refresh and try again.
The last section has miscellanea, including a paper that suggests that a diffusion reaction is responsible for embryogenesis; developmental biology must have progressed in the last 50 years, and I don't know, how much of this paper is still considered true, but the point is that Stephen Wolfram did not invent the idea of simple rules giving rise to complicated patterns. Jenny18 is a sex chat bot that passes the Turing test. Turing did not consider the situation where the judge uses his penis rather than his brain when making the judgment.
Oct 10, Nick Turner rated it really liked it. The editor provides some details of Turing's biography and relevant international events. At the outbreak of hostilities with Germany in September , he joined the Government Codebreaking team at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire and played a crucial role in deciphering Engima, the code used by the German armed forces to protect their radio communications. Turing's work on the version of Enigma used by the German navy was vital to the battle for supremacy in the North Atlantic.
He also contributed to the attack on the cyphers known as "Fish," which were used by the German High Command for the encryption of signals during the latter part of the war. His contribution helped to shorten the war in Europe by an estimated two years. Turing was also a founding father of modern cognitive science, theorizing that the cortex at birth is an "unorganized machine" which through "training" becomes organized "into a universal machine or something like it.
The papers in this book are the key works for understanding Turing's phenomenal contribution across all these fields. The collection includes Turing's declassified wartime "Treatise on the Enigma"; letters from Turing to Churchill and to codebreakers; lectures, papers, and broadcasts which opened up the concept of AI and its implications; and the paper which formed the genesis of the investigation of Artifical Life.
No bibliography on the foundations of computing is complete without The Essential Turing. This attractive package offers an essential text for any scholar of the history, philosophy, or future of computing, and an excellent textbook for every academic program concerned with philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, or artificial life. Copeland's commentary and effortless writing turn reading the works of the father of the digital age into a pleasure, making The Essential Turing an accessible bestseller in popular science.
In this book, Turing's work