Turing, Alan Mathison

The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life plus The Secrets of Enigma

Average customer rating:

An excellent edition, long overdue
a long overdue book
Most Accessible Introduction to Turing
A valuable addition in paraphrasing Turing
A collection of Turing's papers

The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life plus The Secrets of Enigma
Alan M. Turing
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibniz to Turing
Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker
The Undecidable: Basic Papers on Undecidable Propositions, Unsolvable Problems and Computable Functions
Computability and Unsolvability (Mcgraw-Hill Series in Information Processing and Computers.)
Alan Turing: The Enigma

ASIN: 0198250800

Book Description

Alan Turing FRS OBE, (1912-1954) studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of King's in March 1935, at the age of only 22. In the same year he invented the abstract computing machines - now known simply as Turing machines - on which all subsequent stored-program digital computers are modelled. During 1936-1938 Turing continued his studies, now at Princeton University. He completed a PhD in mathematical logic, analysing the notion of 'intuition' in mathematics and introducing the idea of oracular computation, now fundamental in mathematical recursion theory. An 'oracle' is an abstract device able to solve mathematical problems too difficult for the universal Turing machine. In the summer of 1938 Turing returned to his Fellowship at King's. When WWII started in 1939 he joined the wartime headquarters of the Government Code and Cypher School (GCandCS) at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. Building on earlier work by Polish cryptanalysts, Turing contributed crucially to the design of electro-mechanical machines ('bombes') used to decipher Enigma, the code by means of which the German armed forces sought to protect their radio communications. Turing's work on the version of Enigma used by the German navy was vital to the battle for supremacy in the North Atlantic. He also contributed to the attack on the cyphers known as 'Fish'. Based on binary teleprinter code, Fish was used during the latter part of the war in preference to morse-based Enigma for the encryption of high-level signals, for example messages from Hitler and other members of the German High Command. It is estimated that the work of GCandCS shortened the war in Europe by at least two years. Turing received the Order of the British Empire for the part he played. In 1945, the war over, Turing was recruited to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London, his brief to design and develop an electronic computer - a concrete form of the universal Turing machine. Turing's report setting out his design for the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) was the first relatively complete specification of an electronic stored-program general-purpose digital computer. Delays beyond Turing's control resulted in NPL's losing the race to build the world's first working electronic stored-program digital computer - an honour that went to the Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory at Manchester University, in June 1948. Discouraged by the delays at NPL, Turing took up the Deputy Directorship of the Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory in that year. Turing was a founding father of modern cognitive science and a leading early exponent of the hypothesis that the human brain is in large part a digital computing machine, theorising that the cortex at birth is an 'unorganised machine' which through 'training' becomes organised 'into a universal machine or something like it'. He also pioneered Artificial Intelligence. Turing spent the rest of his short career at Manchester University, being appointed to a specially created Readership in the Theory of Computing in May 1953. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in March 1951 (a high honour). In March 1952 he was prosecuted for his homosexuality, then a crime in Britain, and sentenced to a period of twelve months hormone 'therapy'. From 1951 Turing worked on what would now be called Artificial Life, using the Ferranti Mark I computer to model aspects of biological growth, in particular a chemical mechanism by which the genes of a zygote could determine the anatomical structure of the resulting animal or plant. He died in the midst of this groundbreaking work.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent edition, long overdue.......2005-10-25

Enjoy this profound book by the father of the Digital Age. The Essential Turing is an excellent edition and long overdue. Turing's essential works are finally available in a single volume. Turing is one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century--he was rated up there with Einstein in Time magazine's 'The Century's Greatest Minds'. Copeland's lucid commentaries on Turing's work are fascinating and helpful. OUP is to be congratulated on putting Turing into the hands of the popular science book-buyer at long last.

a long overdue book.......2005-09-12

A long overdue book. Copeland collects together Turing's greatest papers. As in where Turing tackled the fundamentals of what is now called a Turing machine - ie. a universal computer. Plus other papers where Turing ruminated on artificial intelligence, and founded that field. Plus coming up with the Turing Test for AI.

Turing's papers are interleaved with chapters by Copeland that give extra context to the times in which Turing lived. Notably on Turing's crucial contribution to the Enigma project at Bletchley Park during World War 2. It is no exaggeration to say that his insight into decoding the German encryptions saved the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers.

Valuable also is a reprinting of Turing's "Treatise on the Enigma", which was only declassified in 1996. Though by then, its essence had been known for decades. Finally, the book lets you read Turing's words on Enigma.

Most Accessible Introduction to Turing.......2005-08-22

This is a terrific book. Turing is one of the most important figures of our time. Copeland's lucid and helpful introductions to Turing's key works make fascinating reading. (The hundreds of footnotes are testimony to the depth of scholarship that underlies Copeland's smooth prose.) Copeland makes Turing, and so the origins of the digital age, accessible to all.

A valuable addition in paraphrasing Turing.......2005-03-22

Copeland's "Essential Turing" reviews Turning's major writings and is a valuable source of knowledge for computer scientists and avid CS/Mathematics readers alike. Turing was a brilliant British mathematician, logician, and cryptographer and is widely considered to be the father of computer science. This book doesn't portray him merely as a code breaker but also provides commentary on his brilliant foundation work as on Artificial intelligence. Discussion on the ultimate Turing test (proposal for a test of a machine's capability to perform human-like conversation) and Entscheidungs Problem is worth reading.

I shelve this book next to Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming" which may state what it's worth.

A collection of Turing's papers.......2005-03-01

Copeland's book is basically a collection of some of Turing's original papers, completed with a short introduction for each part of the book. I was disappointed by this book as (1) one can easily find copies of Turing's work on the web, (2) there is very little additional value in Copeland's comments, and (3) the papers are not reproduced in their original typeset and layout. Elsevier's "Collected Works of A. M. Turing" (4 volumes) does a much better job and offers Turing's complete work.

Average customer rating:

Wonderful, unexpected hybrid
An unholy love child of disparate genres
Saving the world one paper clip and spell at time - a very enjoyable book too
A book that revels in its own geekitude
where the impossible is a secret mathematical reality, oh, and spies too!

The Atrocity Archives
Charles Stross
Manufacturer: Golden Gryphon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1930846258

Book Description

In the title piece, Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, completes his theorem on "Phase Conjugate Grammars for Extra-dimensional Summoning." Turing's work paves the way for esoteric mathematical computations that, when carried out, have side effects that leak through a channel underlying the structure of the Cosmos. Out there in the multiverse are "listeners" who can sometimes be coerced into opening gates. In 1945, Nazi Germany's Ahnenerbe-SS, in an attempt to escape the Allied onslaught, performs just such a summoning on the souls of more than six million. A gate opens to an alternate universe through which the SS move people and material-to live to fight another day. But their summoning brings forth more than the SS have bargained for-an evil, patiently waiting all this time while learning the ways of humans, now poises to lunch on Earth. Secret intelligence agencies, esoteric theorems, Lovecraftian horrors, Middle East terrorist connections, a damsel in distress, and a final battle on the surface of a dying planet round out this story.

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Customer Reviews:

Wonderful, unexpected hybrid.......2007-05-26

Though frequently billed as Lovecraft meets a spy novel, it also has a healthy flavor of alternate history like Hellboy, in which evil Nazis carry on their occult madness and murder long after the war. The least expected twist is the black, oh-so British humor of mundane life in the face of otherworldly weirdness, in which our hero is as terrified of having to fill out requisition forms in triplicate as he is of hellspawn that can rearrange his molecules. It drags a little between scenes, especially with some of the domestic humor of his housemates and girlfriend, or it'd be five stars all the way.

An unholy love child of disparate genres.......2007-05-09

Maybe the funniest thing I've read in years. Definitely the most creative genre mashup I've read. Trust me, if I were 1% as funny or interesting reviewing it, you'd have purchased it by now.

Saving the world one paper clip and spell at time - a very enjoyable book too.......2007-04-29

Bob Howard is his section IT geek in The Laundry - the UK's version of government sponsored supernatural protection agency. Life is pretty predictable for him till he decides to apply for active duty, and his first "simple" job goes pear-shaped on him. From this point onwards Bob is going to learn that while he might know a lot about the supernatural he didn't quite know as much as he thought about The Laundry itself.

This book is actually one novel, "The Atrocity Archives" where we meet Bob and the strange world he inhabits and a novella, "The concrete jungle" which follows up the main story in sequel.

I really enjoyed this book. It doesn't have any real noticeably slow patches. Despite his sometimes horrible work I also liked Bob. I'm glad I picked up this book, while the whole idea of a real dangerous supernatural world surrounding us isn't unique this is a nice fresh approach to the theme. Some of the things it deals with are straight out of a nightmare, but despite that it has an undertone of humour and a sharp eye for office politics and procedures. It's a bit like Dilbert with teeth at times. This is a book I'll be recommending to other friends.

A book that revels in its own geekitude.......2007-04-28

but doesn't offer any real tension or drama. reading this is like reading a geek's blog, lots of silliness, lots of attention calling gambits and lots of geek snobbery, where the author throws stuff in just to try to impress you with his knowledge. What I wanted was a magic wielding spy, what I got was a magic wielding spy who doesn't do spy stuff, throwing out explanations that make no sense and talking about his daily life living with other nerds.

I have a feeling that Charlie is one of those guys who goes to a party and wind up alone because everyone realizes he's one of those guys who will always try to one-up you on any idea you put forth.

where the impossible is a secret mathematical reality, oh, and spies too!.......2007-02-19

After reading the first three volumes of The Merchant Princes I was half willing to completely write Charles Stross off. This fantasy series is less than impressive and while it has decent ideas about parallel worlds and secret families and has the potential to be a really strong series. But The Merchant Princes has been overall disappointing to read.

Charles Stross, on the other hand, has been lauded with most of the awards that a writer in SFF can be awarded with and he picks up nominations almost before he finishes writing a work of fiction. So maybe it was just me. Maybe I was missing something. Stross is known more for his science fiction than his fantasy, so perhaps if I gave his science fiction a shot I would find something that would live up to the hype.

I started at the beginning with The Atrocity Archives. The Atrocity Archive is a short novel which was his first published novel and the Archives also includes a novella The Concrete Jungle. The Concrete Jungle is a Hugo winner in 2005 for Best Novella.

I can only describe a small portion of what the novel is about because there are just somethings I am unable to explain properly. Let me say that the novel is set in early 2001 and there is a man named Bob Howard who works for the Laundry in London. The Laundry is a secret organization which is in place to battle the forces of darkness.

Imagine a world where the Nazis had attempted to tap into the netherworld to bring all sorts of evil to support the Third Reich and that all of this is possible and just science fact. Stross gives a level of detail to the unreal that the impossible feels almost prosaic. It is a remarkable talent.

Bob Howard (Robert E. Howard reference, anyone?) is a computer guy but wants to be put in the field on spy type jobs and his involvement without sufficient training gets him involved in events that build beyond what he ever would have imagined. Bob Howard gets involved into this very netherworld evil that the Laundry is trying desperately to stop.

What makes The Atrocity Archives quite a bit different than other SFF novels is that this is a combination of Lovecraft, Len Deighton's spy novels and perhaps a little bit of Neal Stephenson.
I think that Charles Stross is far stronger at the non-Merchant Princes work because while The Atrocity Archives read like a slow moving spy novel it kept building and building and became more and more interesting and exciting to find out what was happening next. The Atrocity Archives is worth the time spent reading it.

-Joe Sherry

Average customer rating:

interesting portrait of a compelling misfit
A scientifically useful biography
Good biography, perhaps too long.
Essential.
Too much detail for me

Alan Turing: The Enigma
Andrew Hodges
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster (Paper)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Amazon.com

Alan Turing died in 1954, but the themes of his life epitomize the turn of the millennium. A pure mathematician from a tradition that prided itself on its impracticality, Turing laid the foundations for modern computer science, writes Andrew Hodges:

<blockquote>Alan had proved that there was no "miraculous machine" that could solve all mathematical problems, but in the process he had discovered something almost equally miraculous, the idea of a universal machine that could take over the work of any machine.</blockquote>

During World War II, Turing was the intellectual star of Bletchley Park, the secret British cryptography unit. His work cracking the German's Enigma machine code was, in many ways, the first triumph of computer science. And Turing died because his identity as a homosexual was incompatible with cold-war ideas of security, implemented with machines and remorseless logic: "It was his own invention, and it killed the goose that laid the golden eggs."

Andrew Hodges's remarkable insight weaves Turing's mathematical and computer work with his personal life to produce one of the best biographies of our time, and the basis of the Derek Jacobi movie Breaking the Code. Hodges has the mathematical knowledge to explain the intellectual significance of Turing's work, while never losing sight of the human and social picture:

<blockquote>In this sense his life belied his work, for it could not be contained by the discrete state machine. At every stage his life raised questions about the connection (or lack of it) between the mind and the body, thought and action, intelligence and operations, science and society, the individual and history.</blockquote>

And Hodges admits what all biographers know, but few admit, about their subjects: "his inner code remains unbroken." Alan Turing is still an enigma. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description

Alan Turing (1912-54) was a British mathematician who made history. His breaking of the German U-boat Enigma cipher in World War II ensured Allied-American control of the Atlantic. But Turing's vision went far beyond the desperate wartime struggle. Already in the 1930s he had defined the concept of the universal machine, which underpins the computer revolution. In 1945 he was a pioneer of electronic computer design. But Turing's true goal was the scientific understanding of the mind, brought out in the drama and wit of the famous "Turing test" for machine intelligence and in his prophecy for the twenty-first century.

Drawn in to the cockpit of world events and the forefront of technological innovation, Alan Turing was also an innocent and unpretentious gay man trying to live in a society that criminalized him. In 1952 he revealed his homosexuality and was forced to participate in a humiliating treatment program, and was ever after regarded as a security risk. His suicide in 1954 remains one of the many enigmas in an astonishing life story.

Customer Reviews:

interesting portrait of a compelling misfit.......2004-07-09

The book is well titled as the real Alan Turing was an enigma to many of those who knew him and perhaps even to himself. It is another example of how genius moves to its own rhythms and manages to get noticed in spite of itself.
Turing is, more than anyone else, the father of the modern computer, a man who could visualize something which did not even exist. It was his vision that eventually came to be the most powerful innovation in the last half century. Hodges book explores Turing's entire life and illuminates the context in which apparently arcane and irregular thinking came to have profound ramifications at the right moment and time.

A scientifically useful biography.......2004-02-04

I read part of this book in 1985 while trying to understand chaotic orbits. The problem was to understand how an orbit can be deterministic and apparently random. When I read Hodges' description of the Turing machine then I realized that it is easy to answer the question, and was able to write down the answer: one simply digitizes the map or ode, initial condition, and all the control parameters in some base of arithmetic, and then studies the action of a (digitized) positive Liapunov exponent on a digit string. I can't comment on the rest of the book, but Hodges does a very good job of presenting Turing's ideas of computable numbers and computable functions. When my collaborator Palmore read the description I refer to here, he said that he nearly fell out of his chair. We solved the problem of computability of chaotic orbits in that era together.

Is there a good book on computability and automata? So far, all the automata texts that I'm aware of are written in a special holy language of abstract computerize. The language erects an unnecessary barrier to understanding the basic ideas. Is Turing's original paper a proof, or an explanation of what he'd understood? I don't know, but I can refer the reader to "Descartes' Dream" by Reuben and Hersch for perespective.

Good biography, perhaps too long........2003-10-24

If you consider to read this book in order to know about Alan Turing's life, definetely this is the book. In it you will learn about the code breakers, about the WWII spy technology and also about the science aplied to War, however, when I read it I found out that sometimes too many pages (550) can make it boring (more than 20 pages dedicate about how to build a subroutine in a program, more than 20 pages about homosexuality laws, more than 20 pages about historic information from India). Being so detailed makes sometimes forget about the main issue. That is why I didn't give it 5 stars.

Essential........2003-09-20

The one and only Turing biography you'll ever need, long enough to satisfy even the most hardcore Turing admirers. Irreproachably researched and thorough. I only wish Hodges offered an abridged version I could recommend to my friends- this book is too detailed for casual readers.

Too much detail for me.......2002-09-26

I found the story of Alan Turing's life to be very interesting. His original work on dreaming up a "thinking machine" that would eventually become what we know as a computer and his work on breaking the German "enigma" code are worth knowing about. His tragic end is cause for us all to remember the importance of tolerance. However, I found this book to be too long and detailed for my tastes. I think the story could have been told in one half or one third the space. So I would recommend that anyone interested in the history of science read a biography of Turing, but a different one than this book.

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Alan Turing
David E. Newton
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1401090796

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Computer Journalism
Learn about computer history!
Nice biography, but not technical enough
Nice biography, but not technical enough
A good appetizer

Turing and the Computer: The Big Idea
Paul Strathern
Manufacturer: Anchor
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ASIN: 038549243X
Release Date: 1999-04-20

Amazon.com

Few concepts in the history of 20th-century thought are as rich with both philosophical and practical implications as the computer. And few people in the history of computing are as intellectually and personally complex as Alan Turing, the man whose brilliant mathematical imagination laid the foundation for computers as we know them. You could easily spend the rest of the millennium reading up on Turing and his ideas, but if you've only got an afternoon, this engaging, pamphlet-length summary of the man's life and work should get you nicely up to speed.

Author Paul Strathern sets Turing's accomplishments in their historical context. He starts with the long prehistory of the computer--its roots in devices such as the abacus, the slide rule, and Charles Babbage's remarkably sophisticated 19th-century "difference engine." Strathern then moves deftly through the great mathematical debates that led to Turing's formulation of the abstract "universal computing machine" in the mid-1930s. The author also lucidly presents Turing's contributions to turning that abstraction into a concrete mechanism, beginning with Turing's work on the Colossus machine, which cracked Germany's secret codes during World War II.

Strathern conveys with equal vividness the haunted private side of Turing's life--his furtive homosexuality, his difficult relationships, and his conviction in the early '50s on charges of indecency, a not-so-private scandal that apparently led to his suicide. The book owes its rich detail to the work of pioneering Turing biographer Alan Hodges, and Strathern graciously acknowledges the debt. But the accomplishment of packing Turing's big life and big ideas into such a compact package is entirely Strathern's own. --Julian Dibbell

Customer Reviews:

Computer Journalism.......2003-03-07

If you want to read about Turing and the origins of computing on the level and in the style of your Sunday newspaper, this is your book (especially if that Sunday newspaper of yours comes in tabloid format). Otherwise, go for something more intelligent, like A. Hodges, Davies or Copeland.

Learn about computer history!.......2001-01-31

What? You have never heard of Alan Turing? You don't deserve tolive! Quick, buy this book (which [is inexpensive]) and learn everything about computer history before uncle Gabriel discover it and pull your ear lobes! This book shows the computer history, beginning from abacus and obviously focuses at Alan Turing and his most important inventions for computing history, the Colossus and the ENIAC. What? You have never heard of ENIAC? Promise to us: come back here in Hardware Secrets only after you have finished reading this book, ok?

Nice biography, but not technical enough.......2000-11-02

This book gives a short overview over the life of Alan Turing, though it does not go as deep into detail as Douglas Hofstaedter does - and that was just one article in his Metamagicum collection! But if you don't already have Hofstaedter on your bookshelf, you might as well buy this book.

Unfortunately, the mathematical and technical stuff in the book are only described very vaguely - I did not understand how the Enigma code was cracked, or how the proofs concerning computability worked. I am not quite sure whether the author understood what he was writing about.

Nice biography, but not technical enough.......2000-11-02

A good appetizer.......2000-04-01

This little book offers a quick overview of the history of the computer until eventually settling on Alan Turing and his paramount contributions. Obviously it is not meant to be exhaustive but it opens up a menu of topics to be followed if one is interested, all circling around Turing: computer theory, mathematics and the solution of cryptographical problems, Bletchley Park's contribution to winning WorldWarII, artificial intelligence, mathematical theory, mid-20th century persecution of homosexuals in Britain, eccentricity and the nature of genius, the very peculiar personality of Turing himself. It's a little book that explains some basics and opens many doors, for which one has to be grateful.

Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker

Average customer rating:

Turing died too soon
Man of many parts

Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker
Christof Teuscher
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Alan Turing's fundamental contributions to computing led to the development of modern computing technology, and his work continues to inspire researchers in computing science and beyond. This book is the definitive collection of commemorative essays, and the distinguished contributors have expertise in such diverse fields as artificial intelligence, natural computing, mathematics, physics, cryptology, cognitive studies, philosophy and anthropology. The volume spans the entire rich spectrum of Turing's life, research work and legacy. New light is shed on the future of computing science by visionary Ray Kurzweil. Notable contributions come from the philosopher Daniel Dennett, the Turing biographer Andrew Hodges, and the distinguished logician Martin Davis, who provides a first critical essay on an emerging and controversial field termed hypercomputation. A special feature of the book is the play by Valeria Patera which tackles the scandal surrounding the last apple, and presents as an enigma the life, death and destiny of the man who did so much to decipher the Enigma code during the Second World War. Other chapters are modern reappraisals of Turing's work on computability, and deal with the major philosophical questions raised by the Turing Test, while the book also contains essays addressing his less well-known ideas on Fibonacci phyllotaxis and connectionism.

Customer Reviews:

Turing died too soon.......2005-09-18

Teuscher has gathered together a set of thought provoking essays about Turing and the ideas he espoused. The diverse range of the essays is a good reflection of Turing's genius.

The essay on making a self-replicating Turing machine reflects earlier speculations on what might more generally be considered a self-replicating Neumann machine.

There is a palpable sense of loss in the book. Turing died at a relatively young age. What if he had lived decades longer? He could have seen the immense flowering of computing, in hardware and software. With his genius, what other insights might he have given us? If you wish, you can regard the book as speculations into this unknowable.

One of the book's authors, Copeland, has recently edited another book -'The Essential Turing', which has essays by Turing himself, and you may want to look at that text.

Man of many parts.......2004-07-13

This book celebrates the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing by bringing together a large set of essays on topics as diverse and colourful as the work and life of the man himself. Turing's fundamental contributions to computing kick started the modern computing era. However, he also made early and outstanding contributions to artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks, morphogenesis, cryptology and the philosophy of mind. The book touches on all these areas and includes contributions from luminaries such as Martin Davis, Daniel Dennett, Andrew Hodges, Douglas Hofstadter and Ray Kurzweil. The book also contains some essays on contemporary topics related to Turing's work such as the controversial area of so-called hypercomputation. While many of the essays are advanced, the material remains accessible and interesting. Turing had a strikingly original and whimsical imagination - reflecting this, and unlike many books on technical topics, this one includes some of the kind of speculation that is bound to fire the imagination of readers. Will computers outstrip human intelligence, and when might it happen? Will we become more like computers, or will they become more like us? Ninety years on from the birth of Alan Turing such issues are more relevant and pressing than ever, and this book makes an excellent advanced introduction to the breadth of Turing's work.

Average customer rating:

Boring though educative
Don't get this if you're interested in computation, and don't get it if you aren't.
A Novel Approach to Fiction
Bravo !
A charming short novel

Turing (A Novel about Computation)
Christos H. Papadimitriou
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262162180

Book Description

Our hero is Turing, an interactive tutoring program and namesake (or virtual emanation?) of Alan Turing, World War II code breaker and father of computer science. In this unusual novel, Turing's idiosyncratic version of intellectual history from a computational point of view unfolds in tandem with the story of a love affair involving Ethel, a successful computer executive, Alexandros, a melancholy archaeologist, and Ian, a charismatic hacker. After Ethel (who shares her first name with Alan Turing's mother) abandons Alexandros following a sundrenched idyll on Corfu, Turing appears on Alexandros's computer screen to unfurl a tutorial on the history of ideas. He begins with the philosopher-mathematicians of ancient Greece -- "discourse, dialogue, argument, proof... can only thrive in an egalitarian society" -- and the Arab scholar in ninth-century Baghdad who invented algorithms; he moves on to many other topics, including cryptography and artificial intelligence, even economics and developmental biology. (These lessons are later critiqued amusingly and developed further in postings by a fictional newsgroup in the book's afterword.) As Turing's lectures progress, the lives of Alexandros, Ethel, and Ian converge in dramatic fashion, and the story takes us from Corfu to Hong Kong, from Athens to San Francisco -- and of course to the Internet, the disruptive technological and social force that emerges as the main locale and protagonist of the novel.

Alternately pedagogical and romantic, Turing (A Novel about Computation) should appeal both to students and professionals who want a clear and entertaining account of the development of computation and to the general reader who enjoys novels of ideas.

Customer Reviews:

Boring though educative.......2006-09-05

This novel tried to imitate the famous "Sophie's World" in computation. As long the pedagogy is concerned this novel passed the test favorably, but as the fiction is concerned it failed miserably. The story doesn't flow at all. Too much vagueness everywhere. Its a story about too smart people, no place for average people - a weird juxtaposition. The idea of adding in appendix a blog that clarifies some of the ideas mentioned in the text is superb indeed. But overall it is a failed attempt to write a novel by a very accomplished textbook author.

Don't get this if you're interested in computation, and don't get it if you aren't........2006-08-25

This is a rather bland novel interspersed with a very rudimentary introduction to computer science, starting with the basic operation of semiconductors and working up to operating systems, applications, and AI, all at a very superficial and occasionally inaccurate level.

A Novel Approach to Fiction.......2005-08-04

I loved this book, I first heard about it when Papadimitriou gave a guest-lecture at my school on the application of game theory to the study of the evolution of the internet. Much of the story involves tutoring sessions between Turing and Alaxendros while in the background a story evolves. There are some interesting aspects to this book that set it apart from most fiction I've read, for example, there are citations scattered about which point to transcripts from a fictional newsgroup discussion. I found this approach to be much more pleasing than footnotes explaining back story. (...)

Bravo !.......2004-05-11

A must read for computer science. I love the way how Chritos explain the theories of math and cs. The book is extremely fun to read. Great book.

A charming short novel.......2004-03-05

An interesting novel in the vein of Sophi's World. As that story introduced the reader in a gentle fashion to the history of western philosophy, this book introduces the reader to the history of computation. It is wrapped in a love story (or perhaps a love triangle story would be better). As other reviewers have mentioned, the range of topics cover is expansive and somewhat eclectic. But it works nonetheless. The newsgroup postings at the end are apparently fictional as well, or at least fictionalized.

Collected Works of A.M. Turing : Mathematical Logic (Turing, Alan Mathison, Works.)

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Collected Works of A.M. Turing : Mathematical Logic (Turing, Alan Mathison, Works.)
R.O. Gandy<SUP>&dagger;</SUP> , and C.E.M. Yates
Manufacturer: North Holland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Collected Works of A.M. Turing : Mechanical Intelligence (Collected Works of a.M. Turing)
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ASIN: 0444504230

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Hardbound.

Turing and the Universal Machine : The Making of the Modern Computer

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Fine, as far as it goes
Profound Ideas
A good primer for the topic at hand
Eccentric history of the modern computer
The Making of the Modern Computer

Turing and the Universal Machine : The Making of the Modern Computer
Jon Agar
Manufacturer: Totem Books
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Binding: Paperback

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Turing and the Computer: The Big Idea
Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

ASIN: 1840462507

Book Description

Alan Turning is widely known as the cryptographer extraordinaire of Bletchly Park, the man who broke the Nazi Enigma code. He has also been described as the father of the modern computer, dreaming of a machine that could think adn inaugurating a scientific revolution that we are deep in the midst of today. His work entailed too a challenge to the science of ourselves, exploring the limits between the human and technological.

Customer Reviews:

Fine, as far as it goes.......2007-03-19

This book presents a credible history of the development of the modern computer, albeit through deeply-tinted, rose-colored spectacles. The treatment, though, is rather superficial, and this volume reads more like a juvenile history than a work for adults.

The author filters his story through the lens of a Dickensian view of industrial development. It would seem that the nineteenth century was a hellish world of alienated workers slaving like drones in chaotic, out-of-control facories that cried out for organization and control. This despite the fact that the nineteenth century saw the greatest increases in standards of living in history.

Curiously, the author confuses the nineteenth century quest for a universal computing maching with the eighteenth century quest for The Longitude. It would seem that the development of the computer was spurred on by the need to keep the Royal Navy off the rocks at the Isles of Scilly, a problem which had been resolved in the mid-eighteenth century by John Harrison's method of determining longitude, which required only relatively simple navigational computations. There is precious little discussion of the insurance industry, whose growth during the nineteenth century created a need for detailed and lengthy actuarial tables was the original impetus behind Charles Babbage's efforts to build a 'difference engine' in the nineteenth century.

The material on Turing and twentieth century work towards a universal computing machine is better. But even here, the author's biases show through. The material on the Nazi engineer Konrad Zuse isn't always covered in works of this sort. Yet Zuse is portrayed as "only a young engineer, in a lowly position in a large company..." (p. 45). This sort of thing has long since grown tiresome. One wishes the author would simply get on with the story.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of this history is the author's penchant for describing people as if they were computers. Right off the bat, the author characterizes us as living in a "two-tier modern world of general-and special-purpose humans...built in the nineteenth century." (p. 11) Or later, when the British civil service is described as being comprised of "generalist 'intellectuals' and rule-following 'mechanicals'..." (p. 143)

And therein lies the true theme of this book. We live in a two-class society, made up of intellectuals who think for us and the rest of us, who follow the rules they create. And we are all quite happily managed by the electronic computer. This thesis would be laughable if the author set it up as a straw-man, to then attack in moral outrage. But incredibly, Professor Agar seems to view it as the natural and desirable order of things. It makes for very interesting, if somewhat naive, reading.

If you have never read a history of computing and are interested in the subject, thenthis isn't really a bad book. It's just that there are so many books out there that are better than this one. I'd suggest a search on "computer history" here on Amazon. You will get a list of a dozen or so histories that tell the story with more distance and less bias than this volume.

Profound Ideas.......2006-01-09

This brief "history" is more of a thought-provoking analysis of the idea of computing than a recital of the crucial events leading to what we currently think of as a modern computer. Though it does provide some fascinating historical tidbits not found elsewhere, the power of this work lies in its discussion of the underlying theory of computing. For example, Mr. Agar's initial take on Babbage, i.e. that in designing the analytical engine he was merely recreating a manufacturing center, with which he was intimately familiar, is just the first of many profound observations that seem to be tossed off without further comment. Portraying Bletchley Park as a computer itself with the various huts being distributed processors was also a sound analogy and would be a tremendously effective segue into a story about the Internet. The story of Mr. Zuse's machine is likewise a fine example of Mr. Agar's thesis that the increase in computing power merely reflects the increasing complexity of our world. He raises a brilliantly multi-faceted what came first--chicken or egg--argument. Did complexity give birth to the computer or vice-versa? However, I think his ideas go well beyond that premise--though the comments on modern bureaucracy and corporate management were rather cryptic, isn't it true that in the world of "google" we are all distributed processors in a gigantic Universal Machine?

I am surprised that the author didn't fully develop the swiss knife analogy with which he began the book. In a real sense any stand-alone computer is a special purpose machine because it is limited by its user. It is only when programming is universally understood or, better yet, a transparent part of using the machine that we have a truly universal machine. And that is developing right under our noses--the internet has in just a few short years completely changed the educational experience (given the power of the internet my kids have never had to worry about not being able to find the right books in the local library), it has dramatically changed the marketplace (the most obscure books or materials are but a click away), it continues to redefine modern media (Drudge?) and to churn out innovation. But is the latest step towards a truly universal machine--the Internet--the result of society's changes or the cause?

We are blind to the significance of the computer because we are surrounded by its effects. Something huge is coming--the machine envisioned by Turing is still being developed--will we be ready for it, will we be able to understand its power, will we even recognize it when it arrives?

A good primer for the topic at hand.......2005-07-27

I was really hoping for a more detailed time line of the events leading upto the ENIGMA and what eventually lead to the first commercial computers during the late 50s and mid 60s. The author spent a great deal of time detailing the mathematical advances and controversies that spurred the technological advances we see today. Overall the book was mildly interesting, but probably not for the average reader. On the other end of the spectrum it was too much of a primer for anyone with some historical knowledge of mathematics and its part in developing computers.

Eccentric history of the modern computer.......2003-01-10

This curious little book is a pleasant read for those with a knowledge of the history of computers -- heaven knows what others will make of it! It begins with a brief survey of Charles Babbage, which is generally accurate. Followed by some excellent information on Hollerith and the history of punched cards. Agar then covers Konrad Zuse in much more detail than I've seen elsewhere. (Zuse is one of those computer pioneers who was lost to history for a bit and now rediscovered. He built computers in his living room to help design Nazi airplanes.) There follows a whirlwind tour of early American efforts by Aiken, Atanasoff and Mauchly.

Then things get strange as Agar jumps to an in-depth explanation of the basis of modern mathematics (way over my head) with a discussion of Hilbert, Godel, Riemann, Cantor, etc. The book then winds up with a discussion of Turing's contributions to mathematics and code breaking, with an overview of British code-breaking efforts and post-war computer development. All of this overlaid with some peculiar attempts to philosophize on the nature and future of computers.

Whew! You can't do justice to all this in a 150 page paperback, and he doesn't. But the book is well-written and travels down some less-traveled roads, so it's a fun read for computer folk.

The Making of the Modern Computer.......2002-12-25

I would rather term this book as The Making of Modern Computer rather than Turing and the Universal Machine.
It covers whole lot of stories right from the analog machine to modern computer. I expected lot about how Turing and how he made the Universal computer. It is worth reading about the whole history of computer.
Very less information about Turing and his work.

Average customer rating:

Excellent introduction.
Short, Sassy, and to the Point
Turing: A concise but sophisticated biography

Turing (The Great Philosophers Series)
Andrew Hodges
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Essential Turing: Seminal Writings in Computing, Logic, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Life plus The Secrets of Enigma
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ASIN: 0415923786

Book Description

Philosophy is one of the most intimidating and difficult of disciplines, as any of its students can attest. This book is an important entry in a distinctive new series from Routledge: The Great Philosophers. Breaking down obstacles to understanding the ideas of history's greatest thinkers, these brief, accessible, and affordable volumes offer essential introductions to the great philosophers of the Western tradition from Plato to Wittgenstein. In just 64 pages, each author, a specialist on his subject, places the philosopher and his ideas into historical perspective. Each volume explains, in simple terms, the basic concepts, enriching the narrative through the effective use of biographical detail. And instead of attempting to explain the philosopher's entire intellectual history, which can be daunting, this series takes one central theme in each philosopher's work, using it to unfold the philosopher's thoughts.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent introduction........2002-09-25

Very good summary of the work of Alan Turing: his influence on mathematics (where he tried to replace the notion of 'provable' by 'computable') and on the development of the computer.
For me, this little book proves that most of Turing's work has been countered by Roger Penrose. For Penrose, the human mind is capable of the uncomputable, while Turing treats the human brain as a computable machine.
The discussion Turing had with Wittgenstein on the 'liar' paradox has been solved by Tarski (see his difficult book 'Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics').
Obviously, Turing did not play in the same league as the one of geniuses like Gödel or Russell.
Also good information on his tragic personal life.

Short, Sassy, and to the Point.......2001-07-27

Look, sometimes you just don't want to spend days or weeks of your life getting to know some famous personage in intellectual history. At heart, you're lazy, and you're somewhat cheap too. So what better way to get a brief overview of Alan Turing than by Andrew Hodges' cheap and concise book on said? Well, I couldn't think of any, so I picked this up 53 page gem on a whim. It's a historical overview of Turing's career with balanced attention to his thought. With the exception of about 8 pages that only will profit those who have had some experience with what's called the "Halting Problem" in symbolic logic, this is a very readable book. What is a Turing Machine and why are they important to the modern notion of computers? Why is Turing considered the inventor of computational theory, even if not the outright inventor of the computer? (And this last claim is somewhat debatable, as the book points out.) What was Turing doing for the British Government during the war? Why did Turing get fired from his job? There are all sorts of little tidbits of information here, even about his sex life. Ho ho! Also in the book is some discussion of whether a computer can be made to think. Naturally, some of Turing's more interesting comments are quoted on this topic, and Hodges gives attention to the more recent ideas of Roger Penrose, a philosopher whose ideas on artificial consciousness have been influential on the contemporary scene. Okay, you got the time to read 53 pages, and for not more money than a good McDonald's meal, you could be reading it in a day or so if you'll just click the...ordering button...

Turing: A concise but sophisticated biography.......2000-04-06

This is a superb, yet brief overview of Turing, his life and his math. Although this is a sophisticated approach to the man and his work, the writing is readily accessible by a lay person, like myself. One can get a clear flavor of the importance of his work and how his Turing machine model is not just the framework for Bill Gate's wealth but also as a profound extention of the Undecidable problem first addressed by Godel.

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Computer Pioneers

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