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Alan Turing was an English mathematician and a founder of modern computer
science. In 1936 Turing published a seminal paper, "On Computable
Numbers" , in which he conceived a remarkably simple, but powerful
abstract device for performing all possible computations.
The device, now called a Turing machine, consisted of an infinite storage
tape and read-write heads controlled by a finite set of rules. Based on
the current internal state of the control and the value of the current
tape cell, the Turing machine selects a rule that changes the internal
state, writes a value in the current tape cell, and moves the read-write
head left or right one tape cell.
After graduate studies at Princeton University from 1936 to 1938, he
worked in the British Foreign Office through World War II, where he played
a leading role in efforts to break enemy codes. In 1945 he joined the National
Physical Laboratory in London and worked on the Automatic Computing Engine
(ACE), where he developed an original detailed design and prospectus for
a computer in the modern sense, including a then preposterous 4K bytes
of storage space.
In 1948 he became deputy director of the Computing Laboratory at Manchester,
where the Manchester University Computer, the first operational electronic
programmable computer, was being built. He also worked on theories of artificial
intelligence and on the application of mathematical theory to biological
phenomenon. In 1952 he began publication of his theoretical study of morphogenesis,
the development of pattern and form in living organisms.
Turing was arrested for violation of British homosexuality statutes
in 1952. He died of potassium cyanide poisoning two years later. His work
has been invaluable to the continuing development of complex systems and
computer science, as well as to modern research in articifial intelligence
and pattern formation in nature.
His legend even has been recognized in the arts with the appearance
of his Turing Machines in a recent popular work, "The Diamond Age"
by Neal Stephanson. And, if you are interested in Theatre there is a play
on Alan Turing called "Breaking
the Code" by Hugh Whitemore.
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