BY ELIZABETH GREENE

1
Alan Mathison Turing

• BY ELIZABETH GREENE

2
Father of Computer Science

• PIONEER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
• HIS IDEAS WERE VERY ADVANCED FOR THE TECHNOLOGY
  OF HIS TIME
• ONE OF THE FIRST TO BELIEVE IN ARTIFICIAL
  INTELLIGENCE
• WHICH GRAY EXPLAINS AS THE IDEA THAT TECHNOLOGY
  CAN REPLICATE LOGICAL HUMAN THOUGHT (1999)

3
Turings Childhood
Born June 23, 1912 in London England

• Second son to Julius Mathison Turing and Ethel
  Sara Stoney
• Spent childhood in foster households while
  parents lived in India
• Was not seen as a good student by teachers

4
SCHOOLING

• He refused to adapt and ignored subjects that
  did not interest him. BBC News, 1999.
• His genius drove him in his own direction rather
  than those required by his teachers. The
  History of Computing Projects, 2006.

• At age 13 enrolled in Sherbourne School (Gray,
  1999.)
• After two failed attempts, earned a fellowship at
  Kings College in Cambridge
• Also spent time at Princeton
• and University of Cambridge

5
BREAKING THE CODE

• Worked for the British Code and Cypher School
  during WWII
• Helped construct a machine, the Bombe, with
  W.G. Welchman to break the encrypted code
  Germans were communicating with (THOCP, 2006)
• Credited for saving many lives and helping
  Britain win the war (BBC News, 1999)

A replica of the Bombe http//upload.wikimedia.org
/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Bombe-rebuild.jpg
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The Turing Machine

• The concept of the Turing Machine has become
  the foundation of the modern theory of
  computation and computability (Hodges, 1995.
  Part 3)
• Turings idea for the Turing Machine was years
  ahead of the technology needed to build the
  machine
• He wrote about the Turing Machine in 1936 in his
  paper, On Computable Numbers (Hodges, 1995)
• This was the first digital computer programme and
  brought together the logical and physical world
  (BBC News, 1999)

7
Constructing the Machine
After the war Turing was invited to the British
National Physical Lab where he thought he would
have the opportunity to build the Automatic
Computing Engine, based on his Turing machine
idea. Though construction was halted and Turing
got a better offer. He went to the University of
Manchester where he was offered again to make a
Turing machine, (Gray, 1999) though according to
The History of Computing Projects, Turing was
only offered a readership (2006).
Pilot Model of the ACE
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Turing Test

• ONE OF THE FIRST TO BELIEVE IN ARTIFICIAL
  INTELLIGENCE
• a machine can mimic the human brain
• Many people did not want to believe a machine
  could do the same thing as a human
• TURING TEST- A PERSON ASKED QUESTIONS ON A
  KEYBOARD TO A PERSON AND A MACHINE, IF THEY COULD
  NOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE AFTER SOME TIME THE
  MACHINE WAS CONSIDERED INTELLIGENT (BBC NEWS,
  1999)

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Last Days

• Arrested in 1952 for being homosexual
• Instead of jail time, Turing had female hormones
  injected into him
• On June 4, 1954 Turing committed suicide by
  lacing an apple with potassium cyanide

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Legacy of Turing
One day ladies will take their computer for
walks in the park and tell each other, My little
computer said such a funny thing this morning
(Gray 1999)

• Today it would be hard to imagine life without
  computers. It is thanks to Turings work that we
  have been able to evolve with technology!
• According to Gray, Everyone who taps at a
  keyboard, opens a spreadsheet or word processing
  program, is working on an incarnation of a Turing
  machine (1999).

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REMAINING QUESTIONS

• I am still questioning exactly how the Turing
  machine works?
• What computing machine did Turing actually help
  construct?
• Does the Turing Test really support the idea of
  Artificial Intelligence?
• How many papers did Turing write?

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GLOSSARY

• Artificial Intelligence- the performance by
  computer systems of tasks normally requiring
  human intelligence.
• Turing Machine- are basic abstract
  symbol-manipulating devices which, despite their
  simplicity, can be adapted to simulate the logic
  of any computer algorithm.
• Enigma- a mysterious or puzzling person or thing.
  Name of German machine used to encrypt messages.
• W.G. Welchman- mathematician who worked with
  Turing to develop the Bombe
• Turing Test- is a proposal for a test of a
  machine's ability to demonstrate intelligence.
• Automatic Computing Engine (ACE)- was an early
  electronic stored-program computer
• Fellow of the Royal Society- is a learned society
  for science that was founded in 1660 and is
  considered by most to be the oldest such society
  still in existence.
• Automatic Turing Machine- was an early electronic
  stored-program computer design produced by Alan
  Turing at the invitation of John Womersley,
  superintendent of the Mathematics Division of the
  National Physical Laboratory
• Potassium Cyanide- is an inorganic compound with
  the formula KCN. KCN is highly toxic
• Logic- is the study of the principles of valid
  demonstration and inference.
• Thanks to Wikipedia for definitions
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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Bibliography
Alan Mathison Turing. (2006) Retrieved on Jan 15,
2009, from The History of Computing Projects
website http//thocp.net/biographies/turing_alan.h
tml Alan Turing Father of the computer. (1999)
Retrieved Jan 22, 2009, BBC News UK website
http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/330480.stm
Gray, Paul. (1999) Alan Turing. Retrieved Jan
19, 2009, from The Time 100 website http//www.ti
me.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/turing.html
Hausner, Melvin. Alan Mathison Turing. In The
encyclopedia Americana. Glolier website
http//ca.grolier.com Hodges, Andrew. (1995)
Alan Turing a short biography. Retrieved Jan 15,
2009, from The Alan Turing Home Page website
http//www.turing.org.uk.bio/part3.html IMAGES
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re/ss06/cs105/_Downloads/AlanTuring1946.jpg http/
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l http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/
5c/Bombe-rebuild.jpg http//www.webology.ir/2005/v
2n2/images/colossus.jpg