Alan Turing, Father of Computer Science, Would turn 100 this year

Hello All.....
I thought a few of you might enjoy this.....
I am very new here, so I hope this post is OK??????
Allen Sklar
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LOOKING AT THE HISTORY AND THE FUTURE OF COMPUTING:
ALAN TURING, RAY KURZWEIL AND THE YEAR 2029

This year we commemorate what would have been the 100th
birthday of Alan Turing. He was truly the Galileo of a new
field now called computer science which is arguably the most
important scientific advance since the invention of the wheel.
A fascinating article (first URL below) recounts Turing's life,
explains how he correctly envisioned computers would work and
how he defined what we might call a "Turing Machine."

A Turing Machine is any computer so convincing that a human
cannot tell whether the unseen respondent is a computer or another
human. Today we have Turing Machines in very limited areas of
expertise, but a true Turing Machine is years away because it
would be able to converse and reason on any subject matter
whatsoever, and of course show and understand emotion.

Now the big question is when the "technological singularity"
will occur - essentially the arrival of the generalized Turing
Machine. Artificial intelligence has progressed to the point
where computers' reasoning power should be indistinguishable from
human brain power by 2029 according to inventor Ray Kurzweil in
a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal (second URL
below, subscription required).

The "technological singularity" will be monumentally
important in human history -- like landing on the Moon for the
first time but far, far more profound. It'll be interesting to
see if the 2029 date holds, and to ask the Turing Machine just how
it feels about the human race, and what it thinks will happen as
it clones itself and makes itself smarter than humans.

http://tinyurl.com/AlanTuringAt100

Thanks to.........
THE CGC COMMUNICATOR
CGC #1150
Thursday, July 5, 2012


Robert F. Gonsett, W6VR, Editor
<cgc (at) cgc333.connectnet.com>
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So he's still dead then?

In the UK, famous people are sometimes commemorated with a blue plaque on their former homes, describing why they are famous.
Yesterday, I passed one in Hampton saying Turing lived there between 1945 and 1947 (presumably whilst working at NPL just down the road in Teddington).
He was described on the plaque as "the father of modern computing".
There's irony for you.

Of course Alan Turing made significant contributions. But don't forget about Charles Babbage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage and Ada Lovelace Ada Lovelace - Wikipedia. They pioneered this field before Alan Turing was even born.

...or Lady Ada. (sorry couldn't resist)

Which Lady Ada? Limor Fried or Augusta Ada Byron? Sorry, but I did not get the joke.

Just my feeble attempt at irony. Looks like I'll be keeping my day job. :smiley:

Something of a sad chapter in history for us Brits, Alan Turing was credited with shortening the War by 5 years because of his work with ciphers, but we hounded him to death because he was homosexual.

That's the irony of the "father" tag.