Alan Turing Quotes

United Kingdom, Scientist
June 23, 1912 – June, 7, 1954.

Alan Mathison Turing OBE FRS (/ˈtjʊərɪŋ/; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.

Also known as Mathematician, Philosopher

Instruction tables will have to be made up by mathematicians with computing experience and perhaps a certain puzzle-solving ability. There need be no real danger of it ever becoming a drudge, for any processes that are quite mechanical may be turned over to the machine itself.

Alan Turing
- Up
- Real
- May
Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.

Alan Turing
- Science

We are not asking whether all digital computers would do well in the game nor whether the computers at present available would do well, but whether there are imaginable computers which would do well.

Alan Turing
- Game
- Present
The idea behind digital computers may be explained by saying that these machines are intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer.

Alan Turing
- Done
- May
The Exclusion Principle is laid down purely for the benefit of the electrons themselves, who might be corrupted (and become dragons or demons) if allowed to associate too freely.

Alan Turing
May not machines carry out something which ought to be described as thinking but which is very different from what a man does?

Alan Turing
- Different
- Thinking
- May
We do not wish to penalise the machine for its inability to shine in beauty competitions, nor to penalise a man for losing in a race against an aeroplane. The conditions of our game make these disabilities irrelevant.

Alan Turing
- Game
- Wish
- Shine
I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.

Alan Turing
- Believe
- Thinking
- Words

Presumably the child-brain is something like a note-book as one buys it from the stationer's. Rather little mechanism, and lots of blank sheets.

Alan Turing
- Book
- Brain
If one wants to make a machine mimic the behaviour of the human computer in some complex operation one has to ask him how it is done, and then translate the answer into the form of an instruction table. Constructing instruction tables is usually described as 'programming.'

Alan Turing
- Done
A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.

Alan Turing
- Discipline
We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.

Alan Turing
- Done
- Distance
Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.

Alan Turing
- Great