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Origin
Alan Turing was born on June 23rd, 1912 in London. He was educated in the traditional Imperial British system, but he would later be characterized by his libertarian views on the world. -
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Education
Turing was always a brilliant scholar. His career in higher education began at Cambridge University. He was a distinguished scholar and in 1935 he became a Cambridge fellow. In 1936 he published his paper “On Computable Numbers…” which launched his name in the field of mathematical logic. He eventually moved on to Princeton University but he wouldn't stay there for long due to the outbreak of war in Europe. -
Enigma
AT the onset of World War II, Germany was steamrolling other European powers. To help the Ally causing, Turing began work on the Enigma machine. His contributions as chief scientist helped the Allies decipher German communications enroute to victory. -
Post War
Even though he was instrumental in the Allies victory, Turing's contributions were overshadowed by his American counterparts. So post war he floated around until he found firm footing again. -
Artificial Intelligence
He changed his field of study to the comparison of the power of computation and the power of the human brain. His work would lay the foundation for artificial intelligence. -
Famous Works
After moving to Manchester University in 1948, Turing produced some of his most important work. His work during this time laid the foundations for today's computer software and Artifial Intelligence. During this time he produced papers such as “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” -
Setback
In 1952, Turing was arrested for an affair with another man. Due to this he was not allowed to continue his work in the field of secret cryptology. -
Death
Turing died in 1954 at the age of 46, Even though no foul play was found, there are conspiracies that he may have been assassinated. -
Sexuality
One of the most important aspects of Turing's life was his sexuality. He was a gay man during a time when he was persecuted for it. But, rather than hiding it he embraced it. When he was arrested and persecuted for his sexuality, he did not back down. He stood fast and became more ambitious in the face of injustice. -
Unfinished Works
Turing was a young man at the time of his death. He objectively worked in many different fields when he was alive. After his death, Turing was working on research in fields in areas such as quantum mechanics which he believed to be the "basis of free will." -
Conclusion
Alan Turing wasn't a hacker in the way that we think of hackers. His goal wasn't to make the world a better place, he was a man driven by the pursuit of furthering the science would. But, without him computers as we know them may not be what they are. He is proof that hackers come in all shapes, sizes, and they all have different motivations. But, like other hackers Turing has made the world a much more accessible and better place.
https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/turing/ -
Impact on AI
Turing’s work in the field of Artificial Intelligence cannot be disputed. He worked on the belief that the human mind is finite and much of his life work was dedicated to fixing that flaw. He is considered a pioneer on topics such as machine intelligence. His work in the field is the basis for much of the AI work of today. -
Turing Machine
During his time at Cambridge, Turing learned of the work of David Hilbert. Hilbert proposed the Entschidungsproblem (decision problem), which asked if statements that can be answered with either "yes" or "no" are universally true. Turing proved this to be untrue with his "Turing Machine." -
Personality
Turing was known for his ecctric personality. He was described as a skeptic, someone who disrespected worldly values, gloom, and vivacious. He was not someone to loaf around. So much so that hen he was in a down period from 1946-1948 he almost qualified for the Olympics in1948. -
Turing Machine continued
This was a revolutionary machine that provided the basis for modern computational systems. The machine was designed to test if certain mathematical problems were computable. It would manipulate values according to a program and depending on the outcome the state of the machine would change according to the user's inputs. This would be Turing's defining work. -
Reference
Hodges, Andrew. “Alan Turing.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 30 Sept. 2013, plato.stanford.edu/Entries/turing/.