Who is that?! Alan Turing
Alan Turing? The Turing test? Turing complete? Completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart? Theoretical computer science? The Turing award?!
One of the biggest flaws I see in Computer Science today is the lack of historical knowledge about the field. For this reason, I have decided to write about such historical aspects, delivering information that may be unknown. Note that these articles are to focus on their personal contributions, with little focus on their personal lives.
Alan Turing, commonly referred to as the “Father of Computer Science,” truly lives up to the title, being one of the most admirable and intelligent pioneers of the Computer Science field today. Early on, young Turing dove deep into mathematical and scientific studies, being able to mentally compute calculus without having any knowledge of calculus taught to him. Turing’s extreme interest in mathematical problems, specifically those that we’re “unsolvable” for most, in combination with his highly ambitious nature drove him to dive deeper into academia.
When admitted into college, Turing wrote a dissertation which proved the central limit theorem. This major accomplishment helped pave the way for Turing in proving and computing other limitations in mathematics. His most notable take was on Entscheidungsproblem, which asks: “Is there an algorithm that can take logic as input and return ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ if the statement is valid?” Of course, in today’s world of rapid computing and basic programming, this problem sounds trivial. However, the tools available in Turing’s time were different and were not able to solve such a problem. For this reason, Turing transformed the universal arithmetic language and combined it with hypothetical devices, creating what are now called Turing Machines. In short, Turing Machines are capable of performing mathematical computations under the condition that such computations could be represented as an algorithm. Such mathematical computations were input as a single-tape and, if successful, would be deemed as Turing Complete. Though modern-day computers have renovated the way data is computed (via random-access memory), Turing Machines paved the way for their creation. University admission was not the limit of Turing’s impact, and continued in military assistance.
Recruited in 1938, Alan Turing assisted in the war effort. During the harsh times of the Second World War, soldiers returned encrypted messages using a machine called “The Enigma.” The machine worked as a typewriter that, when utilized, would scramble letters so that enemy forces would not be capable of reading such messages when intercepted. Though this created the solution of privacy, it also created the lack of decryption. Prior to Alan Turing’s encounter with Enigma, humans were required to decipher messages. Such a task proved to be extremely difficult considering large amount of variation. However when Alan Turing had been met with such a complex situation, he took to a technological approach and invented the “Bombe.” His invention allowed for computational cryptography, assisting British cryptologists to decipher Engima-encrypted messages. The invention saved lives because of the ability to rapidly decipher and allow for response to soldiers’ messages. Turing’s legacy in the field of computational cryptography continued even further, creating the hand-code-deciphering method called Turingery as well as inventing a voice-encrypting machine called Delilah. Nearing the end of the war, Turing still had technological dreams to make reality.
Alan Turing relocated to the National Physical Laboratory in London, where he then designed the Automatic Computing Machine (ACE for short). The design allowed for the first successful invention of a stored-program computer. With the ability to simulate a described program while also being able to read input, ACE became Turing’s complete idea of a Universal Turing Machine. In short, a Universal Turing Machine is able to do just as what ACE was designed for: Simulate a machine that has been described while also being capable of reading input. Almost sounds familiar right?
His legacy still continued to move forward. In 1948 when Turing began working a position at the University of Manchester (formerly known as Victoria University of Manchester), he recognized an issue with a field that was still in large development. The field was artificial intelligence, or A.I for short, which was previously thought of as an electronic brain that could think like a human. Turing’s concern was that, if artificial intelligence were smart enough, they would able to ‘think.’ The standard for ‘thinking’ was to be capable of deceiving a human into thinking that the A.I. was also human. To test this possibility, Turing created the Turing test.
This involved one human in front of two doors; this human was the interrogator. Behind one door is the A.I and the other is another human. The test had the interrogator interact with both subjects by having written conversations between them. Since the interrogator had no physical sight of each subject, it was up to them to determine who was human and who was not. If the interrogator could not distinguish the human from the machine, the machine had passed the Turing test.
Though it may not be seen everywhere now, the Turing test has taken a new form, however in reverse. It’s form can be seen in a long array of websites, online services, and online registration. In 1997, teams worked to create a system that deterred bots online. While the Turing test worked to figure out who was an A.I. or a bot, this practice worked to figure out who was a human. In 2003, the practice was deemed a “Completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart,” or CAPTCHA for short.
In the end, Alan Turing became the man often known for creating theoretical computer science. This field focuses on the mathematical computations involved in computer science, similar to how Turing did as a mathematician. Turing’s extraordinary mark on computer science also created the Turing Award, being earned by those who have delivered long-term, technical importance to the computer field.
Although his personal life was to not be involved in this article, I believe the end of Turing’s life is worth noting. Alan Turing was openly homosexual and, at the time, such orientation was considered indecent. He was convicted and chose hormonal treatment over time in prison. His plan was to continue his studies, however was halted when the treatment caused Gynecomastia. Alongside such a tragedy, Turing’s conviction denied him entry into the United States as well as his government clearance to his cryptography studies. In the end he took his own life, by consuming a cyanide-poisoned apple.
It is extremely shameful that such an individual with a large impact was treated so poorly. His creations and renovations delivered a path for the future. Although there were others that delivered similar creations to those of Turing, they were often lacking and not of the highest capability. From the Turing Machine to the Turing Test, such creations have paved the way to the modern day field that we call Computer Science. Analyzing the intelligent and ambitious inventor can remind us that, as builders of the future, progress truly begins with the desire to solve a problem.
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