Alan Turing: The father of modern Computer Science

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By Paul I. Muntean

5/5/2012 Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BEAxoknHgo

Outline

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Chronology The Entscheidungsproblem The Turing Machine Second World War Turing Test Turing Life and Ethics Turings death Recognitions Questions References
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Chronology I

Alan Turing, born at 23rd of June, 1912 Father Julius Mathison Turing and Ethel Turing in London UK Enters school at 14 years, adaptation problems Brother, John Turing Tried to enter to Trinity Colege, failed and enther to Kings college

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Chronology II

First Encounter with John von Neumann in summer 1935 Got his Ph.D. from the US university Princeton In 1942 spent time with communication theorists Claude Shannon In 1950 writes a paper where he describes the Turing Test 1954 he is found death, he has eaten a poisoned apple, suicide can not be ruled out

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The Entscheidungsproblem or decision problem

Exist in mathematics a procedure for settling in essence any mathematical problem? Turing proved that is not possible Formalism which mimics the human brain Hilbert: 1.Are mathematics consistent? 2.Is mathematics complete? 3.Mathematics are decidable. Turing wanted to prove 3.
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The Turing Machine

A Turing Machine (TM) is a device with a finite amount of read-only hard memory (states), and an unbounded1 amount of read/write tape-memory. There is no separate input. Rather, the input is assumed to reside on the tape at the time when the TM starts running. Just as with Automata, TMs can either be input/output machines (compare with Finite State Transducers), or yes/no decision machines. Start with yes/no machines.
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Source: http://hackaday.com/2010/03/27/turing-machine-amasterpiece-of-craftsmanship/

The Turing Machine II

First Goal of Turings Machine: A model that can compute anything that a human can compute. Before invention of electronic computers the term computer actually referred to a person whos line of work is to calculate numerical quantities! As this is a philosophical endeavor, it cant really be proved. Turings Thesis: Any algorithm can be carried out by one of his machines

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The Turing Machine III

Second Goal of Turings Machine: A model thats so simple, that can actually prove interesting epistemological results. Eyed Hilberts 10th problem, as well as a computational analog of Gdels Incompleteness Theorem in Logic. Philosophy notwithstanding, Turings programs for cracking the Enigma cryptosystem prove that he really was a true hacker! Turings machine is actually easily programmable, if you really get into it. Not practically useful, though
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The Turing Machine IV

Imagine a super-organized, obsessive-compulsive human computer. The computer wants to avoid mistakes so everything written down is completely specified one letter/number at a time. The computer follows a finite set of rules which are referred to every time another symbol is written down. Rules are such that at any given time, only one rule is active so no ambiguity can arise. Each rule activates another rule depending on what letter/number is currently read, EG:
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The Turing Machine (small example)

Sample Rules: If read 1, write 0, go right, repeat. If read 0, write 1, HALT! If read , write 1, HALT! Lets see how they are carried out on a piece of paper that contains the reverse binary representation of 47:

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Example ( I )

If read 1, write 0, go right, repeat. If read 0, write 1, HALT! If read , write 1, HALT!

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Example ( II )

If read 1, write 0, go right, repeat. If read 0, write 1, HALT! If read , write 1, HALT!
0 1 1 1 0 1

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Example ( III )

If read 1, write 0, go right, repeat. If read 0, write 1, HALT! If read , write 1, HALT!

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Example ( IV )

If read 1, write 0, go right, repeat. If read 0, write 1, HALT! If read , write 1, HALT!

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Example ( V )

If read 1, write 0, go right, repeat. If read 0, write 1, HALT! If read , write 1, HALT!

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Example ( VI )

If read 1, write 0, go right, repeat. If read 0, write 1, HALT! If read , write 1, HALT! So the successors output on 111101 was 000011 which is the reverse binary representation of 48.
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Second World War ( I )

1918 Arthur Scherbius built the Enigma Before that, all coding systems were lingual based Advantage Enigma: Enigma machine useless when stolen, cypher produced was very difficult
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Second World War ( II )

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Source: http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-maps/world-war-ii-map.html

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Second World War ( III )

Polish enable to crack the code, sharing Bought a commercial Enigma Called for help: mathematicians The French bought keys, couldnt do anything with it Poland foresaw its invasion by Germany: gave all knowledge to England and France, destroyed it afterwards (1939)
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Second World War ( IV )

Enigma machine exists out of:

Plug board 3/ 4/ 5 rotors Different variant for navy up to 8 rotors mirror rotor

Source: http://www.enigmaco.de/ 5/5/2012 21

Second World War ( V ) 1939 Turing was asked to help to crack the Enigma Built with a team the Colussus, the first programmable computer Based on: his own 1936 concept of the universal machine the potential speed and reliability of electronic technology the inefficiency in designing different machines for different logical processes Cypher code could be decrypted from 1943 All computers were destroyed, ordered by Churchill 5/5/2012 22

Second World War ( VI ) The Colossus

Source: http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/colossus.htm 5/5/2012 23

Second World War ( VII )

Source:http://twbrit.com/2009/08/06/bletchley-park-the-home-of-anti-social-networking/ 5/5/2012

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Second World War ( VIII )

Source: http://www.ilord.com/enigma.html 5/5/2012

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Second World War ( IX )

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine

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Turing Test ( I )
Because of the construction of the Colussus Turing thought it could be possible to construct a computer with the mind of a human being Wasnt focused anymore on what a TM could NOT do, but could do Turing was convinced that if a computer could do all mathematical operations, it could also do anything a person can do, a still highly controversial opinion In the Turing test for machine intelligence, an observer has to distinguish between the machine and a human by asking a series of questions through a computer link.
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Turing Test ( II )
Neurology & physiology Strengths of the test Weaknesses of the test

Source:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Behaviour.png?uselang=de 5/5/2012 28

Turing Test ( III )

1950 Computing Machinery and Intelligence his renown paper "I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?'" Turing Test Around the year 2000 a computer could pass, Turing prediction Round 1990 no computer came near breaking through the test, and still there isnt any computer who can.

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Turing Test ( IV )

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Turing life and ethics ( I )

During his childhood lives in other family. Turing's first friendship with Christopher Morcom, who was Turing's first love interest. Turing was an atheist believing in the idea of materialism He works a the first sore peace of code in 1949 From 52-54 works in the field of mathematical biology Turing liked running very much: he even ran the Marathon

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Source:http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_19/b3882029_mz072.htm

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Turing life and ethics ( II )

In 1952 he meets A. Murray after watching a movie toghether Murray returns to Turings house a couple of weeks were he spents a night Murray enters in Turings house without his permision It is investigated by the police. Turing acknowledges that he had a relation The two were charged and subjected to hormonal treatment Security clearance,Passport no, forbiden entrance to the US
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Turings Death
Committed suicide by eating a cyanide poisoned apple, 8th of June 1954 . Cause cyanide poisoning He was cremate, 12 june 1954 Turing mother says it was an accident regarding the bad habit of her sun to carreles store chemicals A. Hodges his biographer says that he choosed to die so ambiguasly in order to have something plausible for his mother D. Levit says that he was acting as in a scene of the film Snow White from 1937
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Recognitions ( I )
Award the highest award in C.S. since 1966 Breaking the Code is a 1986 play by Hugh Whitemore about Alan Turing. On 23 June 1998, on what would have been Turing's 86th birthday A. Hodges Unvails a plaque To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, a memorial plaque was unveiled on 7 June 2004 at his former residence, Hollymeade, in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

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Recognitions ( II )
On 13 March 2000, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines issued a set of stamps. On 28 October 2004, a bronze statue of Alan Turing sculpted by John W Mills was unveiled at the University of Surrey in Guildford In 2006, Boston Pride named Turing their Honorary Grand Marshal. The Princeton Alumni Weekly named Turing the second most significant alumnus in the history of Princeton A 1.5-ton, life-size statue of Turing was unveiled at Bletchley Park.
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Recognitions ( III )
The memorial statue, depicts the "father of Computer Science. A plinth at the statue's feet says 'Father of computer science, mathematician, logician, wartime code breaker, victim of prejudice'. In 1999, Time Magazine named Turing as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century
Source: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/07/alan-turing-the-father-of-computer-science.html

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Recognitions ( IV )
The University of Texas at Austin has an honors computer science program named the Turing Scholars.

Source: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/contact/map.html
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Recognitions ( V )
In August 2009, John Graham-Cumming started a petition urging the British Government to posthumously apologies to Alan Turing for prosecuting him as a homosexual. The petition received thousands of signatures. Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him ... So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan's work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better.
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Recognitions ( VI )

Source:http://www.hnf.de/Sonderausstellung/Aktuell.asp?highmain=4&highsub=1&highsubsub=0 5/5/2012

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Questions What if A. Turing had lived twice he actually did? Where would the world be know?

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Source: http://pred.boun.edu.tr/ps/problemsolvers2.html

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Thanks for your attention.

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References
Paul I. Muntean 2011, paper for the seminar Wissenschaftler und Ethik - Summer 11, Alan Turing: The father of modern Computer Science.

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