Mathematical Logic. Collected Works of A. M. Turing.

by Alan M. Turing, R.O. Gandy (Editor), C E Yates (Editor)

Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954) made major contributions to several areas of science. Today his name is mentioned frequently in philosophical discussions about the nature of Artificial Intelligence. He was a pioneer researcher in computer architecture and software engineering - his work in pure mathematics and mathematical logic extended considerably further. His last work was "On Morphogenesis in Plants."; Turing was one of the leading figures in 20th century science, a fact which would have been known to the general public sooner but for the British Official Secrets Act, which prevented discussion of his wartime work. Although they were written decades ago, the papers in this volume address issues which concern researchers today.

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First published December 5, 2001

About the author

Works 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.