Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Looking At Turing

Posted by Hemos on from the down-memory-lane dept.

Jim Jones has written in with the first of a series that explores the history of Mr. Alan Turing, and his connection with digital computing.

4 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Good History by sleeperservice · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nice article - and I'll look forward to the next installment.

    Here's a question, though - Do we still live in an age where we can postulate these types of ideas and questions, or do we demand hard-core applications to come directly from speculative science?

    I've wondered about that for a number of years now.

    1. Re:Good History by Strange_Attractor · · Score: 4, Insightful
      This sort of freewheeling speculation is still (and always will be) possible - at least to bright young people who can't be browbeated, bribed, or otherwise made to respect received wisdom that strikes them as wrong. A few current examples - Linux coders, Stephen Hawking, K. Eric Drexler. Entrenched, and "self-evidently true" beliefs insisted nothing concrete (or interesting or possible) would come of their work - which added to their inspiration.

      Certainty that that era is over has probably a big part of the "give up" status-quo indoctrination (I do not mean to attack you, but I think it's food for thought).

      --

      ----
      WWJD...For a Klondike Bar?
  2. Re:What a teaser! by gordon_schumway · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Except most would decribe him as either a mathematician or computer scientist and the Nobel Prizes are awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, Literature and Peace.

    --

    Ha! I kill me!

  3. Mr. Alan Turing????? by aquisgrana · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Surely Doctor Alan Turing.

    He did his PhD at Princeton