The Essential Turing

Citation

Hutton, D.M. (2007), "The Essential Turing", Kybernetes, Vol. 36 No. 3/4, pp. 550-551. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920710747147

There have already been several complimentary reviews and reports on this book which was published by Oxford University Press and compiled by B.J. Copeland from some excellent material contributed by well‐known writers. The Editor is the Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing and in consequence has both the opportunity and the position to select his material and contributors. The book is structured around its four main parts:

1. 1.

   Computable numbers.

2. 2.

   Enigma.

3. 3.

   Artificial intelligence (AI).

4. 4.

   Artificial life.

Alan Turing's work is already well‐known to cyberneticians and systemists and indeed to anyone in any field that involves computing. The Turing Test remains a popular talking point at research events and his contributions to such diverse areas as codebreaking, logical concepts, computing and many other areas are well remembered.

Equally his work in biological studies and particularly in what became known as AI is still regarded as a great contribution to what has become such an important contemporary field of endeavour.

This book has been designed to integrate both his work in these academic fields with other fascinating biographical detail. It succeeds in producing a mix that makes it acceptable to the academic who requires a substantial and informative study of his work with that of what many regard as a colourful personal life. His training as a mathematician shows throughout his work and this is, some may argue, the basis for his innovative studies in the fields that his work has covered.

The four parts of the book demonstrate this and draw on the wealth of material that is available. In the first part, which deals with computable numbers, Turing's important paper. “On computable numbers with an application to the Entcheidungs problem” is included. This describes the first designs of the Turing Machine. In the second part, a chapter from Turing's “Treatise on the enigma” is also included as well as details of the code breaking activities of Turing and his colleagues at Bletchley Park. The third part has Turing's paper “Intelligent Machinery” and discusses his contribution to AI. It was at this time that the Turing Test which readers will recall sought a computer program that would be able to imitate a human being, emerged.

Finally the book deals with artificial life and describes some of Turing's studies on the reaction‐diffusion model of chemical reactions. Various well known articles by Turing are contained in this section.

This is a book that is really worth reading because it not only contains such important material about his academic life, but also provides an insight into his personal relationships and most important of all the man himself.