History of Computers - Alan Turing

Introduction

Alan Turing was a British cryptanalyst and computer scientist who helped break German ciphers during WWII. He pioneered the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence.

Overview

Alan Turing was born on June 23 1912 in London, England. Turing was said to flaunt his mathematical prowess in many of his classes, much to his teacher's dismays. Turing joined the British codebreaking teams for WWII in 1938. Turing is held responsible for breaking numerous German ciphers, which yielded a great advantage for the allies in WWII. Turing modified a Polish electromagnetic machine called the Bombe to aid in his breaking of ciphers. Turing also devised some early schematics that were heavily influential in the creation of the first stored program computer. In the field of artificial intelligence, Turing is know for creating the Turing Test, a series of question or passes that determine if a machine can be considered intelligent. Turing was convicted of indecency in 1952 for having a homosexual relationship, which was illegal at the time. He was stripped of many honors and academic titles, and was forced to undergo hormone therapy. Turing committed suicide two years later by inducing cyanide.

Significance

Although not entirely responsible for the creation of artificial intelligence OR computer science, Turing was incredibly influential in both, having created the Turing Test and the Turing Machine, which were important in the development of both fields. Turing was certainly a pioneer in that he was among the first people to apply computing machinery to his work, and saved countless allied lives in WWII as a result.

References

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/18/turing-contributions?page=all

http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/Reference%20Articles/codebreaker.html