Professor Alan Turing
Introduction
During the Second World War, a brilliant British mathematician in the name of Allan Turing to the leading role in dismantling the Nazi ciphers (Hodges, 2009). In his seminar paper written in 1936, Hodges (2009) indicates that Turing proved that no universal algorithm method could exist in establishing truth in mathematics. He further suggested that mathematics will at all times have undividable propositions. Turing impressive work as a mathematician has widely been acknowledged to be the foundation that has played an important role in cryptography, cryptanalysis, encryption, and computer science in general. Because of his enormous contribution to the field of mathematics and computer science, Allan Turing has continued to receive numerous awards and recognitions. This discussion aims to demonstrate how Turing has made significant contributions to modern computer science and in particular to various fields such as artificial intelligence
Early Life
Alan Turing’s birthday was on June 23, 1912, and he was the son of Alan Mathison Turing (Hodges, 2009). At a very young age, Turing started to exhibit signs of an individual with high intelligence, with some of his teachers recognizing his incredible intellectual ability, although not all respected it. Turing developed a special interest in science and mathematics subject as a thirteen years old boy while attending school at the Sherborne School. He later joined King’s College now the University of Cambridge between 1931 and 1934, where his dissertation on the central limit theorem showcased his incredible intellect, and it got him elected to become a fellow at the university after his graduation (Hodges, 2009).
1936 was one of the Turing highlight yeas because he delivered a paper describing Computable Numbers while applying the Entscheidungs problem. During this presentation, Hodges (2009) indicates that Turing was able to talk about the idea of a universal machine that came to be known as the “Universal Turing Machine” and later the “Turing machine.” This machine could compute anything computable, and it often considered to have been the processor that led to modern computers (Hodges, 2009). Turing would later move to Princeton, New Jersey, for two years, where he studied advanced mathematics and cryptology at Princeton University, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1938. Upon his graduation, he went back to Cambridge, where he would take part-time positions at the Government Code and Cypher School, which is a code-breaking organization (Hodges, 2009).
Alan Turing Important Role in Cryptography, Cryptanalysis, Encryption, and Computer Science
Turing played a key role in the Second World War because he was the leading participant in the wartime code-breaking, especially that belonging to the German Ciphers (Hodges, 2009). Turing worked at the Bletchley Park, which was GCCS wartime station, and during his time here, Turing managed to make five key advances in the cryptography and cryptanalysis fields. For example, he was able to specify the bombe, which is an electromechanical device that was used to decipher the German-Enigma encrypted signals (Hodges, 2009). – Best Dissertation Writing Service in Australia
Turing continued to make more contributions to more code-breaking processes, where he wrote papers about the different mathematical approaches that can be applied in code-breaking. These contributions would later become very important assets the Cipher and Code School now the Government Communications Headquarters. These paper writings were so important that the Government Communications Headquarters held them until 2012 before releasing them as a historical record at the United Kingdom’s National Archives (Hartmanis et al., 2012).
Around the mid-1940s, Turing relocated to London, where he began working at the National Physical Laboratory. He made a significant contribution while working at this laboratory, among them is leading the design work that led to the Automatic Computing Engine (Hartmanis et al., 2012). Additionally, he came up with a groundbreaking blueprint that was used for the store-program computers. Although the Automatic Computing Engine complete version was never built, most of its concepts have been applied by technology cooperation globally as a model, influencing the development of the American Bendix G-15 as well as the English Electric DEUCE, among other models (Hartmanis et al., 2012). The American Bendix G-15 is credited by respectable figures in the tech industry to be the world’s original personal computer. These achievements demonstrate that the works of Allan Turing continue to play a significant role in computer science even to date.
Towards the late 1940s, Turing would go-ahead to hold a very important and high ranking position at the University of Manchester mathematics departments and the computing laboratory. Turing first talked about the idea of artificial intelligence in a paper titled “Computing machinery and intelligence” in 1950 (Garner, 2009). In this paper, Garner (2009) indicates that he proposed an experiment which he named as Turing Test,” and it was aimed at coming up with an intelligent design standard that would be used within the tech industry. To date, this test has made huge contributions to the field of artificial intelligence and continues to be a topical issue influencing debates on the subject even today. As such, these events demonstrate that Turing has made significant contributions to modern computer science and in particular to various fields such as artificial intelligence
Turing Awards and Recognition
Because of his enormous contribution to the field of mathematics and computer science, Allan Turing has continued to receive numerous awards and recognitions. For instance, after the Second War, Turing received an award as an Order of the British Empire in recognition for playing a key role as a leading participant in wartime code-breaking, especially those belonging to the German Ciphers (Cowell, 2019). This award is a demonstration of how Turing works played a huge role and made a significant impact in helping advance the British agenda during this war.
Turing also received honor and recognition in several other different ways, especially in Manchester, where he was based and worked towards the twilight of his life. Cowell (2019) indicates that the Time magazine in 1999 recognized Turing to have been among the most important people ever to grace the 20th century, arguing that everyone who opens a word-processing or spreadsheet program, taps a keyboard or any other computing application is working on the products of the Turing Machine. Additionally, the 2002 BBC’s 100 Greatest Britons” nationwide poll, Turing ranked as number 21(Cowell, 2019). From these recognitions, we can conclude that Turing works have made a significant contribution in the fields of computer science, where many reputable persons have often credited him for being the founder of this field.
Most recently, in July 2019, Turing was recognized by the Bank of England when it announced that he would be the face of the new £50 note in the UK (Cowell, 2019). His face would be put alongside the images displaying his works, which a huge honor and recognition for enormous contribution to the progress of society and advancement in the technology we currently enjoy today. When making this announcement, the Bank of England indicated that Turing’s name was chosen from a very long list of about 1000 individuals nominated by the British general public (Cowell, 2019). This recent recognition is a true reflection of how British society feels about his contribution to the betterment and overall good of society’s being, especially in the field of computer science.
Conclusion
From the preceding, there is no doubt that Allan Turing’s impressive work as a mathematician is the foundation that has played an important role in cryptography, cryptanalysis, encryption, and computer science in general. Turing played a key role in the Second World War because he was the leading participant in the wartime code-breaking, especially that belonging to the German Ciphers. Turing continued to make more contributions to more code-breaking processes, where he wrote papers about the different mathematical approaches that can be applied in code-breaking. He made a significant contribution while working at the National Physical Laboratory, among them is leading the design work that led to the Automatic Computing Engine. Finally, Turing came up with the Turing Test” which was aimed at developing an intelligent design standard that would be used within the tech industry and to date, this test has made huge contributions to the field of artificial intelligence. To date, Allan Turing has continued to receive numerous awards and recognitions because of his enormous contribution to the field of mathematics and computer science.
References
Cowell, A. (2019, June 5). Overlooked no more: Alan Turing, condemned code breaker and computer visionary. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/obituaries/alan-turing-overlooked.html
Garner, R. (2009). undefined. Parsing the Turing Test, 319-324. DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-6710-5_19 – Best Dissertation Writing Service in Australia
Hartmanis, J., Cook, S., Kahan, W., Stearns, R. E., & Yao, A. C. (2012). Undefined. ACM Turing Centenary Celebration on – ACM-TURING ’12. DOI:10.1145/2322176.2322184
Hodges, A. (2009). Alan Turing and the Turing test. Parsing the Turing Test, 13-22. DOI:10.1007/978-1-4020-6710-5_2
White, J. (2012). undefined. ACM Turing Centenary Celebration on – ACM-TURING ’12. DOI:10.1145/2322176.2322177
