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Alan Turing: Founder of Computer Science

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Engineering Trustworthy Software Systems (SETSS 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 10215))

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Abstract

In this paper, a biographical overview of Alan Turing, the 20th century mathematician, philosopher and early computer scientist, is presented. Turing has a rightful claim to the title of ‘Father of modern computing’. He laid the theoretical groundwork for a universal machine that models a computer in its most general form before World War II. During the war, Turing was instrumental in developing and influencing practical computing devices that have been said to have shortened the war by up to two years by decoding encrypted enemy messages that were generally believed to be unbreakable. After the war, he was involved with the design and programming of early computers. He also wrote foundational papers in the areas of what are now known as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mathematical biology shortly before his untimely death. The paper also considers Turing’s subsequent influence, both scientifically and culturally.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to my good colleague Prof. Zhiming Liu for academic support over the years and financial support provided through Southwest University in Chongqing, China. Thank you as well to my coauthors, Prof. Jack Copeland et al., on The Turing Guide [23, 44]. Parts of this paper have been adapted and updated from [8], with permission of the editor, and from a talk at Gresham College in London [9].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Computer Science and Informatics, School of Engineering, London South Bank University, Borough Road, London, SE1 0AA, UK

    Jonathan P. Bowen

  2. Museophile Limited, Oxford, UK

    Jonathan P. Bowen

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  1. Jonathan P. Bowen
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Correspondence to Jonathan P. Bowen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. London South Bank University, London, United Kingdom

    Jonathan P. Bowen

  2. Southwest University, Chongqing, China

    Zhiming Liu

  3. Southwest University, Chongqing, China

    Zili Zhang

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Bowen, J.P. (2017). Alan Turing: Founder of Computer Science. In: Bowen, J., Liu, Z., Zhang, Z. (eds) Engineering Trustworthy Software Systems. SETSS 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10215. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56841-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56841-6_1

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