Alan Turing – biografi

Alan Mathison Turing, OBE (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954), was an English mathematician, logician, and cryptographer. Turing is often considered to be the father of modern computer science. – - With the Turing test, Turing made a significant and characteristically provocative contribution to the debate regarding artificial intelligence: whether it will ever be possible to say that a machine is conscious and can think. He provided an influential formalisation of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, formulating the now widely accepted “Turing” version of the Church–Turing thesis, namely that any practical computing model has either the equivalent or a subset of the capabilities of a Turing machine. – During World War II, Turing worked at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking centre, and was for a time head of Hut 8, the section responsible for German Naval cryptanalysis. He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including the method of the bombe, an electromechanical machine which could find settings for the Enigma machine. – - After the war, he worked at the National Physical Laboratory, creating one of the first designs for a stored-program computer, although it was never actually built. In 1947 he moved to the University of Manchester to work, largely on software, on the Manchester Mark I then emerging as one of the world’s earliest true computers. – - In 1952, Turing was convicted of “acts of gross indecency” after admitting to a sexual relationship with a man in Manchester. He was placed on probation and required to undergo hormone therapy. – - Turing died after eating an apple laced with cyanide in 1954, sixteen days short of his 42nd birthday. His death is regarded by most as an act of suicide.

References:

O’Connor, John J., and Edmund F. Robertson. “Alan Mathison Turing“. MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.

B. Jack Copeland, (2004) “Colossus: Its Origins and Originators”. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 26(4):38–45.

B. Jack Copeland, (editor, 2004) The Essential Turing. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-825079-7 (hardback) and ISBN 0-19-825080-0 (paperback).

B. Jack Copeland, (editor, 2005), Alan Turing’s Automatic Computing Engine. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-856593-3.

B. Jack Copeland (editor, 2006), Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers, 2006, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-284055-X.

Andrew Hodges, (1983/2000). Alan Turing: The Enigma. Simon & Schuster, 1983, ISBN 0-671-49207-1. Also: Walker Publishing Company, 2000.

Christof Teuscher (editor 2004), Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker. Springer-Verlag, ISBN 3-540-20020-7.

David M. Yates, (1997) Turing’s Legacy: A history of computing at the National Physical Laboratory 1945–1995. London: Science Museum, ISBN 0-901805-94-7.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1932/1976) Wittgenstein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics (1932–1935). Edited by Cora Diamond. Cornell University Press.

Johnson, George (2005) “Enigmatic”. New York Times Book Review (12/18/2005). Review of David Leavitt, The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer (2005).

Holt, Jim (2006) “CODE-BREAKER The life and death of Alan Turing.”. The New Yorker (1/30/2006). Review of David Leavitt, The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer (2005).