The Influence of Alan Turing on Modern Society
Although the majority of people cannot imagine life without computers, they owe their gratitude toward an algorithm machine developed seventy to eighty years ago. Although the enormous size and primitive form of the object might appear completely unrelated to modern technology, its importance cannot be over-stated. Not only did the Turing Machine help the Allies win World War II, but it also laid the foundation for all computers that are in use today. The machine also helped its creator, Alan Turing, to design more advanced devices that still cause discussion and controversy today. The Turing Machine serves as a testament to the ingenuity of its creator, the potential of technology, and the glory of innovation.
To provide the necessary context for the design of the Turing Machine, one must study the history of its creator, Alan Turing. He was born on June 23, 1912, in the city of London. Although a very wise child,
…show more content…
From TIME Magazine to Princeton University, numerous figures of fame publicly announced their support for Turing. Finally, in 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown formally apologized on behalf of the British government on their poor treatment of him because of his homosexuality (Biography.com Editors).
Alan Turing left an indelible mark on the world with technological inventions, extraordinary talent, and productive habits. His dedication to hard work and perseverance against the discouragement of bullying provide fantastic examples for anyone to emulate. Also, the inventions of the Turing Machine and the Bombe were the primary reasons why computers existed during the last sixty years, and were important factors in the demise of Nazi Germany. Finally, for one to truly understand why Turing was important in world history, he should envision life without modern technology and
In this paper I will evaluate and present A.M. Turing’s test for machine intelligence and describe how the test works. I will explain how the Turing test is a good way to answer if machines can think. I will also discuss Objection (4) the argument from Consciousness and Objection (6) Lady Lovelace’s Objection and how Turing responded to both of the objections. And lastly, I will give my opinion on about the Turing test and if the test is a good way to answer if a machine can think.
These projects come to live in the Research division at IBM. In 2005 Paul Horn, director of the division wanted to try to create a machine able to pass the Turing Test. No machine had done it. But researchers didn’t believe that it would get the public’s attention in the way that Deep Blue had. Horn thought of another game where it would...
One of the hottest topics that modern science has been focusing on for a long time is the field of artificial intelligence, the study of intelligence in machines or, according to Minsky, “the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”.(qtd in Copeland 1). Artificial Intelligence has a lot of applications and is used in many areas. “We often don’t notice it but AI is all around us. It is present in computer games, in the cruise control in our cars and the servers that route our email.” (BBC 1). Different goals have been set for the science of Artificial Intelligence, but according to Whitby the most mentioned idea about the goal of AI is provided by the Turing Test. This test is also called the imitation game, since it is basically a game in which a computer imitates a conversating human. In an analysis of the Turing Test I will focus on its features, its historical background and the evaluation of its validity and importance.
The Turing Machine is a simple kind of computer. It is limited to reading and writing symbols on a tape and moving the tape along to the left or right. The tape is marke...
Alan Mathison Turing was born on June 23rd of 1912 in London (source 1 xv) to father, Julius Turing, (source 1 5) , and mother Ethel Stoney (source 1 6) . Alan was born into the Turing family with an older brother, John Turing, who was 4 years his senior (source 1 8) . The Turing family was not poor, but money was constantly rationed due to the constant travel that Julius Turing committed to as an Indian Civil Service Officer which made Julius a lacking father figure to his two sons (source 1 5) . Consequently, due the lack of parental guidance in his life, Alan tended to be a problematic child “who could learn anything but be taught almost nothing” (source 5) , and Alan was known to be strongly opinionated and sarcastic (source 1 14) . Nevertheless,
To keep the story short, Ari progresses from “being awkward with Dante” to “discovering he cares for Dante” and finally realizing that he has fallen in love with the boy. Before coming to his final realization, however, he needed to brace what society has in store for him. As a result of Dante’s homosexuality, he got beat up by some neighborhood boys. Since Ari realizes he cares for Dante, he goes ahead to take revenge and gets into trouble with his parents and other people. Now, we will transition Ari’s viewpoint to Turing’s. Turing was born part Jewish, a religion that does not tolerate homosexuality. In 1952, Turing was put on trial for having a homosexual affair with another male, Arnold Murray. Back in 20th century Britain, homosexuality was a crime, and both were put on charge for gross indecency. Resulting from his conviction, Turing was given two choices: imprisonment or probation. It is at this crossroad that our two individual stories conjoin; if you decide to take the fury of society head on, you will succeed in your battle with the population. If you back down, however society will get the best of you and rob you of your true desire. At this point, both people have encountered the same conflict that society had for them. The main difference between the two, however, is the methodology the two used to resolve the
Using philosophical works, I look to show the shortcomings of the Turing Test and the importance of emotional intelligence through self-motivation, self-awareness and intentionality. In Ex Machina, Nathan, the creator of Ava, used a modified Turing Test to evaluate her capabilities. As Nathan put it, “Ava was a mouse in a mousetrap. And I
In the movie called “The Imitation Game” is about Alan Turing that tried to break the Morse code of the Nazi Germany which was unbreakable because the Morse code have to put the enigma to translate so we can read it. Alan Turing was mathematician who work for Britain government to break the Enigma code of Nazi German to won the war. This code was unbreakable code because each unique code have special meaning it all most impossible since Enigma have 159 quintillion possibility setting. Alan was a very clever man because he think out of the box to break solve this puzzle which no one didn’t think of before. He think that if their people can’t break code but if we used a machine to help them to break this code and won the war.
In 1939, British Intelligence recruit Alan Turning, a mathematician/crypt analyst from Cambridge, to help win the war against the Germans. Turing leads a team of linguists and scholars to crack the "unbreakable" Nazi codes, shaped by the Enigma machine, which is used to communicate with the German military. Alan constructs a machine that would decrypt Enigmas messages at a much more substantial rate, rather than mentally solving the codes on paper. While the team finds success, Turing's announces his confined homosexuality to his newly married wife/colleague. Although there are violent and alcoholic actions illustrated and sexual themes portrayed throughout, this movie has a very strong message on perseverance and is suitable for high school age kids.
Alan Turing being the protagonist of this film undergoes many scenes of conflict which makes the film more appealing to the audience by allowing them to either relate to him or sympathise for him. There are many scenes where Turing is advised to keep his gender preference under the radar or even black mailed to keep quiet under the threat of telling authorities that he is a homosexual. There is a scene where Turing finds the Soviet Spy in Bletchley Park who turns out to be John Cairncross. Cairncross catches Turing before he spreads the secret and says "if you tell them my secret I'll tell them your's". Another example of black mail is when Stewart Menzies, who is in on Cairncross's undercover work, finds out of Turing's knowledge and blackmails Turing in the same way Cairncross did. These examples of the protagonist being seen in conflict makes the film more appealing to the audience by making the character seem more relatable as everyone in life come across different types of conflict and it is appealing to see how other people overcome their
In order to work on cracking the code Alan’s sexuality must be hidden deep in the closet. Alan Turing’s homosexuality makes up a big part of who he is. Turing always felt uncomfortable around other men, because his old friend Christopher was the only one that filled his heart with love. From a social conflict perspective, we can see how the
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
Since the beginning of time, humans have thought and made many inventions. Repeatedly the newer one is better than the older. Our minds have created many remarkable things, however the best invention we ever created is the computer. computers are constantly growing and becoming better every day. Every day computers are capable of doing new things. Even though computers have helped us a lot in our daily lives, many jobs have been lost because of it, now the computer can do all of the things a man can do in seconds! Everything in the world relies on computers and if a universal threat happens in which all computers just malfunction then we are doomed. Computers need to be programmed to be able to work or else it would just be a useless chunk of metal. And we humans need tools to be able to live; we program the computer and it could do a lot of necessary functions that have to be done. It is like a mutual effect between us and he computer (s01821169 1).
The history of the computer dates back all the way to the prehistoric times. The first step towards the development of the computer, the abacus, was developed in Babylonia in 500 B.C. and functioned as a simple counting tool. It was not until thousands of years later that the first calculator was produced. In 1623, the first mechanical calculator was invented by Wilhelm Schikard, the “Calculating Clock,” as it was often referred to as, “performed it’s operations by wheels, which worked similar to a car’s odometer” (Evolution, 1). Still, there had not yet been anything invented that could even be characterized as a computer. Finally, in 1625 the slide rule was created becoming “the first analog computer of the modern ages” (Evolution, 1). One of the biggest breakthroughs came from by Blaise Pascal in 1642, who invented a mechanical calculator whose main function was adding and subtracting numbers. Years later, Gottfried Leibnez improved Pascal’s model by allowing it to also perform such operations as multiplying, dividing, taking the square root.
Computer technology not only has solved problems but also has created some, including a certain amount of culture shock as individuals attempt to deal with the new technology. A major role of computer science has been to alleviate such problems, mainly by making computer systems cheaper, faster, more reliable, easier to use.