The Great Philosophers: Turing

To fully answer the question whether machines can think seems to presuppose the question "what is thinking?" In other words, how will we know when a machine thinks? Will it tell us? Will it compose sonnets? The eponymous "Turing test" attempts to unravel this paradox. To greatly simplify, the test states that if a human interpreter, alone in a room, cannot distinguish answers given by a machine, in a separate obscured room, from answers given by a human being, in a third obscured room, then the machine must have human-like intelligence. Alan Turing, often credited with the invention of the now ubiquitous computer, proposed these criteria in a 1950 paper called "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." He was not trying to invent a computer, even when he provided an unmistakable model for one, the "Turing Machine," in a 1936 paper. Instead, he sought to model the computable aspects of the human mind. The mathematician Hilbert's work gave rise to the "Entscheidungsproblem," or the problem of "decidability." Answering this problem, as the young Turing did, also led to his conceptual blueprint of what we now know as a computer. Nonetheless, the human mind remained Turing's focus, and that's why he's represented in "The Great Philosophers" series. Arguably, his predominant question was "what is thinking?" or, at least, "how does the mind compute?" His answers had far-reaching implications for the philosophy of mind, amongst other disparate fields. Early twentieth century mathematical logic, then seen as "the quest for truth" by eminent philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, was Turing's starting point. This book's author, Andrew Hodges, also wrote an earlier, much longer, biography called "Alan Turing: The Enigma." Hodges uses this diminutive book to update some of the thoughts presented in that earlier 1983 biography. This 1999 book, a follow-up of sorts, traces Turing's thought from early adulthood to his sad and tragic suicide in 1954. Though some 58 pages long, it feels comprehensive. Apart from "The Turing Machine," "The Universal Machine," "The Turing Test," and his early development, the breezy text covers Turing's travails with homosexuality, his cryptographic feats during World War II, his conception of a discrete state machine, his thoughts on ESP, his brief but somewhat uneventful run-in with Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1937, and reactions to his work by Roger Penrose, a skeptic concerning "mechanical intelligence." Throughout, Hodges refers to Turing as a "natural philosopher" in that he ignored many of the demarcations that still silo academia, such as the distinction between "pure" and "applied" mathematics. Though this attitude led to some of his greatest intellectual feats, it also made him somewhat cryptic to academia. To this day, Turing's work defies solid categorization. Nonetheless, his influence on modern life remains indisputable, though many consider, controversially, von Neumann the "real" inventor of the computer (his EDVAC predate

Very good summary of the work of Alan Turing: his influence on mathematics (where he tried to replace the notion of 'provable' by 'computable') and on the development of the computer.For me, this little book proves that most of Turing's work has been countered by Roger Penrose. For Penrose, the human mind is capable of the uncomputable, while Turing treats the human brain as a computable machine.The discussion Turing had with Wittgenstein on the 'liar' paradox has been solved by Tarski (see his difficult book 'Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics').Obviously, Turing did not play in the same league as the one of geniuses like Gödel or Russell.Also good information on his tragic personal life.

Look, sometimes you just don't want to spend days or weeks of your life getting to know some famous personage in intellectual history. At heart, you're lazy, and you're somewhat cheap too. So what better way to get a brief overview of Alan Turing than by Andrew Hodges' cheap and concise book on said? Well, I couldn't think of any, so I picked this up 53 page gem on a whim. It's a historical overview of Turing's career with balanced attention to his thought. With the exception of about 8 pages that only will profit those who have had some experience with what's called the "Halting Problem" in symbolic logic, this is a very readable book. What is a Turing Machine and why are they important to the modern notion of computers? Why is Turing considered the inventor of computational theory, even if not the outright inventor of the computer? (And this last claim is somewhat debatable, as the book points out.) What was Turing doing for the British Government during the war? Why did Turing get fired from his job? There are all sorts of little tidbits of information here, even about his sex life. Ho ho! Also in the book is some discussion of whether a computer can be made to think. Naturally, some of Turing's more interesting comments are quoted on this topic, and Hodges gives attention to the more recent ideas of Roger Penrose, a philosopher whose ideas on artificial consciousness have been influential on the contemporary scene. Okay, you got the time to read 53 pages, and for not more money than a good McDonald's meal, you could be reading it in a day or so if you'll just click the...ordering button...

This is a superb, yet brief overview of Turing, his life and his math. Although this is a sophisticated approach to the man and his work, the writing is readily accessible by a lay person, like myself. One can get a clear flavor of the importance of his work and how his Turing machine model is not just the framework for Bill Gate's wealth but also as a profound extention of the Undecidable problem first addressed by Godel.