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Print Price: $23.50

Format:
Paperback
320 pp.
20 b/w illustrations, 129 mm x 196 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198719182

Publication date:
November 2014

Imprint: OUP UK

Turing

Pioneer of the Information Age

B. Jack Copeland

Alan Turing is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. But who was Turing, and what did he achieve during his tragically short life of 41 years? Best known as the genius who broke Germany's most secret codes during the war of 1939-45, Turing was also the father of the modern computer. Today, all who "click-to-open" are familiar with the impact of Turing's ideas.

Here, B. Jack Copeland provides an account of Turing's life and work, exploring the key elements of his life-story in tandem with his leading ideas and contributions. The book highlights Turing's contributions to computing and to computer science, including Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life, and the emphasis throughout is on the relevance of his work to modern developments. The story of his contributions to codebreaking during the Second World War is set in the context of his thinking about machines, as is the account of his work in the foundations of mathematics.

Readership : Readers interested in Alan Turing, codebreaking, Bletchley Park, the Second World War, and computing history.

1. Click to Open
2. Turing's Universal Machine
3. Sinking Hilbert
4. The Intuitive Mathematician
5. Breaking Enigma
6. Tunny - Hitler's BlackBerry
7. The Colossus of Computers
8. ACE- A Month's Work in a Minute
9. The Manchester "Electronic Brain"
10. Artificial Intelligence
11. The Imitation Game
12. Educating Machinery
13. Computer Chess
14. Artificial Life
15. Epilogue

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Jack Copeland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he is Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing. His books include The Essential Turing (Oxford University Press), Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers (Oxford University Press), Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine (Oxford University Press), Logic and Reality: Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior (Oxford University Press), and Artificial Intelligence (Blackwell). He has published more than 100 articles on the philosophy and history of computing, and mathematical and philosophical logic.

Turing - B. Jack Copeland

Special Features

A biography of one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century.
Reflects upon all aspects of his life and work - from his important role at Bletchley Park, and his contributions to artificial intelligence, to his tragic personal circumstances and death aged only 41.
Considers the legacy of his work today.
Written by the leading scholar on Turing's work.