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Mechanical Intelligence, Volume 1 (Collected Works of A.M. Turing)
Hardbound.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
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About the author
Alan M. Turing
48 books288 followersWorks of British mathematician Alan Mathison Turing explored the possibility of computers and raised fundamental questions about artificial intelligence; during World War II, he helped to decipher the German enigma codes and thus contributed to the Allied victory.
This highly influential English logician, cryptanalyst, and scientist developed and provided a formalization of the concept of "algorithm" with the eponymous machine, which played a significant role in the modern creation. People widely considered this father.
Turing worked for the government code and cypher school at Bletchley park, code-breaking center of Britain. For a time, he headed hut 8, the responsible naval section. He devised a number of techniques, including the method of the "bombe," an electromechanical machine that ably found settings, for breaking ciphers. After the war, he worked at the national physical laboratory and created the ACE of the first designs for a stored program.
Biology interested Turing towards the end of his life.
He wrote a paper on the chemical basis of morphogenesis and predicted oscillating reactions, such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky, first observed in the 1960s.
Still illegal homosexual acts of Turing resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952 in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. From cyanide poisoning, he died several weeks before his forty-second birthday. An inquest determined suicide; his mother and some other persons thought of his accidental death.
Following an Internet campaign, Gordon Brown, prime minister of Britain, on 10 September 2009 made an official public apology on behalf of the government for the postwar treatment of Turing.
This highly influential English logician, cryptanalyst, and scientist developed and provided a formalization of the concept of "algorithm" with the eponymous machine, which played a significant role in the modern creation. People widely considered this father.
Turing worked for the government code and cypher school at Bletchley park, code-breaking center of Britain. For a time, he headed hut 8, the responsible naval section. He devised a number of techniques, including the method of the "bombe," an electromechanical machine that ably found settings, for breaking ciphers. After the war, he worked at the national physical laboratory and created the ACE of the first designs for a stored program.
Biology interested Turing towards the end of his life.
He wrote a paper on the chemical basis of morphogenesis and predicted oscillating reactions, such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky, first observed in the 1960s.
Still illegal homosexual acts of Turing resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952 in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. From cyanide poisoning, he died several weeks before his forty-second birthday. An inquest determined suicide; his mother and some other persons thought of his accidental death.
Following an Internet campaign, Gordon Brown, prime minister of Britain, on 10 September 2009 made an official public apology on behalf of the government for the postwar treatment of Turing.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 21, 2023
Alan Turing is an entertaining read, at least from the computer science POV. Which is basically his POV. This was a very approachable book for someone with a computer science background. Which makes sense, because it's the start of quite a few classes of what you would take towards a computer science degree. Had they of course only developed about a chapter of very terse, informative notes per class. But realistically? It's the most important parts - the seeds that would become whole subfields later on. For example Computer Architecture (CS 250 / 301 to me) - Turing walks through the construction of his ACE machine in pretty much what you'd expect out of building a computer with the tools available at the time. Mercury is probably a little harder to get a hold of these days, but otherwise? The principles haven't changed, just the cost of materials. And even then, not by much.
One thing that I was taught, as a young student was that computers 'only do what you tell them to do'.
Yet even in the very beginning, way back in these papers Turing clearly described how this might not be so. Lovelace might be forgiven had she believed this ( but even she I suspect imagined machine creativity and machine learning beyond the programmers ability to foresee or imbue. )
So why was I taught this way? How did 40-140 years of computer science not internalize this idea?
It is a mystery.
You can see the little seeds of Godel Escher Bach here, too, though not as deeply thought through.
In general, whether or not you're a computer science student, you could do worse for having a 'computer science' part of your bookshelf than by including this one.
Second reading: this one is deeper than I was able to get from one pass, there's stuff in here that only makes sense when you get through it and think about it for awhile. Turing is a very rewarding read, generally, and this is where some of his most serious thrusts are. Even the editors of these volumes seem to have missed some of what he actually said, because he got so much across.
One thing that I was taught, as a young student was that computers 'only do what you tell them to do'.
Yet even in the very beginning, way back in these papers Turing clearly described how this might not be so. Lovelace might be forgiven had she believed this ( but even she I suspect imagined machine creativity and machine learning beyond the programmers ability to foresee or imbue. )
So why was I taught this way? How did 40-140 years of computer science not internalize this idea?
It is a mystery.
You can see the little seeds of Godel Escher Bach here, too, though not as deeply thought through.
In general, whether or not you're a computer science student, you could do worse for having a 'computer science' part of your bookshelf than by including this one.
Second reading: this one is deeper than I was able to get from one pass, there's stuff in here that only makes sense when you get through it and think about it for awhile. Turing is a very rewarding read, generally, and this is where some of his most serious thrusts are. Even the editors of these volumes seem to have missed some of what he actually said, because he got so much across.
March 24, 2024
Quattro pubblicazioni di Turing sulla progettazione e lo sviluppo dei calcolatori digitali arrivando anche al "gioco dell'imitazione" noto forse più come Test di Turing.
Soprattutto i primi due affrontano il problema da un punto di vista ingegneristico e matematico. Forse con troppi numeri e formule per un lettore medio ma è stato per me molto affascinante ritrovare concetti che affronto studiando informatica qui esposti in una forma più arcaica ma comunque comprensibile e che non oscura il loro essere ancora attuali.
Andando avanti il libro propone riflessioni più legate all'accettazione della macchina ed a problemi "quotidiani" con Turing che riflette su questioni sempre più "filosofiche" e "fantascientifiche". Alla fine non mi è parso assurdo leggere un passaggio su come i fenomeni E.S.P. possano alterare il gioco dell'imitazione e la nostra percezione dei computer in quanto "esseri pensanti". Una breve ma incisiva deriva steampunk che ho apprezzato XD
Resta comunque una raccolta che suggerirei nella sua interezza a chi già studia la materia.
Avrei gradito avere molte più note e retrospettive. Il libro è carente in questo tolta l'introduzione. Per questo non metto 5 stelle.
Credo che le pubblicazioni siano disponibili gratuitamente online per chi non ha problemi con l'inglese.
Soprattutto i primi due affrontano il problema da un punto di vista ingegneristico e matematico. Forse con troppi numeri e formule per un lettore medio ma è stato per me molto affascinante ritrovare concetti che affronto studiando informatica qui esposti in una forma più arcaica ma comunque comprensibile e che non oscura il loro essere ancora attuali.
Andando avanti il libro propone riflessioni più legate all'accettazione della macchina ed a problemi "quotidiani" con Turing che riflette su questioni sempre più "filosofiche" e "fantascientifiche". Alla fine non mi è parso assurdo leggere un passaggio su come i fenomeni E.S.P. possano alterare il gioco dell'imitazione e la nostra percezione dei computer in quanto "esseri pensanti". Una breve ma incisiva deriva steampunk che ho apprezzato XD
Resta comunque una raccolta che suggerirei nella sua interezza a chi già studia la materia.
Avrei gradito avere molte più note e retrospettive. Il libro è carente in questo tolta l'introduzione. Per questo non metto 5 stelle.
Credo che le pubblicazioni siano disponibili gratuitamente online per chi non ha problemi con l'inglese.
May 6, 2017
Illuminante!
June 5, 2025
Impressionantepensandoalladatadistesuradegliarticoli.Michiedo:seTuringavesseavutolapossibilitàdimetteremanosuuncomputermodernocosaneavrebbetratto?
July 14, 2008
The book is a compendium of Alan Turing's seminal writings. If you are interested in digital computers this is a good, albeit technical, read. Turing's thinking along with that of John von Neumann underpins all of the computer technology we cannot do without.
June 23, 2017
Che bruttura. Non c'è davvero niente in questo libro che possa interessare a uno del 2017.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews