Undoubtedly, this man
has to stand at the top.
Go and ask anybody today, Who is Turing? 90% of people won't know this man. Yet his impact is found in almost every hand on this planet.
On 10 September 2009, the then prime minister Gordon Brown made a public apology to the British mathematician Alan Turing, on behalf of the government. “We’re sorry,” he said. “You deserved so much better.”
Go and ask anybody today, Who is Turing? 90% of people won't know this man. Yet his impact is found in almost every hand on this planet.
On 10 September 2009, the then prime minister Gordon Brown made a public apology to the British mathematician Alan Turing, on behalf of the government. “We’re sorry,” he said. “You deserved so much better.”
Every (emphasis added)
computing device you used is the sprouted idea of this man. He deserves the
fame Albert Einstein, Galileo, Hawking get. Unfortunately, luck is not always
with you.
I present to you one of the most intelligent, most original, the most diverse, most sophisticated and tragic hero in the history of mankind.
I present to you one of the most intelligent, most original, the most diverse, most sophisticated and tragic hero in the history of mankind.
ALAN TURING (1912-1954)
To just point out his
major accomplishments:-
> He designed the programming of the world's
first commercial computer - Whilst at the University of Manchester,
Alan Turing designed the programming system of the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's
first commercially available electronic digital computer.
> He is the father of Artificial Intelligence -
Turing is generally regarded as the pioneer of Artificial Intelligence. He
believed that computers would be able to learn and devised the Turing Test,
which would text whether a computer was really intelligent. No computer has
passed the test, as yet.
> Alan was awarded an OBE for his wartime services -
He was awarded the OBE in 1945 for services to the country in wartime, despite
the fact that most of what he did would not be made public for another 30
years.
> He was the inventor of the Turing Machine -
In 1935, Turing invented a device which is now referred to as the Turing
Machine. To this day, all stored-programme digital computers are modelled on
this invention.
> He was integral to
the building of The Bombe. -
Although Polish scientists had previously invented a device known as a 'Bomba',
Turing took their early versions and developed it into an electro-mechanical
machine which greatly helped in the breaking of the Enigma code used by the
German forces.
> His work enabled the Enigma to be decoded -
By early 1942, the team at Bletchley Park were decoding up to 39,000 Enigma
messages a month. Eventually this number rose to 84,000 or about two messages
decoded every minute.
> Alan Turing's war
work is believed to have shortened the war - Many people, including
Winston Churchill, claimed that Turing's work shortened the Second World War by
at least two years.
> Alan was a member
of the team which decoded the 'Fish'
cipher - The 'Fish' cipher which was used towards the end of the war
by the German High Command to transmit messages between Hitler and senior
officers in the field.
Turing was gay,
and in 1952 while working at Manchester University, where he had a relationship
with a technician called Arnold Murray, he was arrested and charged with gross
indecency. He escaped prison only by agreeing to chemical castration through a
year's doses of oestrogen – which curator David Rooney said had a devastating
effect on him, mentally and physically. In
1954 he was found dead in his bed, a half-eaten apple on the table beside
him, according to legend laced with the cyanide which killed him.
Turing died at the age
of 42. Alone, tired and an unnecessary death. He truly was a tragic hero.
No comments:
Post a Comment