Turing

From WW2 code-breaker to Artificial Intelligence - a fascinating account of the remarkable Alan Turing.

Alan Turing's 1936 paper On Computable Numbers was a landmark of twentieth-century thought. It not only provided the principle of the post-war computer, but also gave an entirely new approach to the philosophy of the mind.

Influenced by his crucial codebreaking work during the war, and by practical pioneering of the first electronic computers, Turing argued that all the operations of the mind could be performed by computers. His thesis is the cornerstone of modern Artificial Intelligence.

Andrew Hodges gives a fresh analysis of Turing's work, relating it to his extraordinary life.

About the Author

Andrew Hodges is best known as the author of Alan Turing: The Enigma, the story of the extraordinary British computer pioneer and codebreaker, which the New Yorker recently described as 'one of the finest scientific biographies ever written.' He is also active in research into fundamental physics, a colleague of Roger Penrose, and a lecturer at Wadham College, Oxford University.