Alan Turing Quotes

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Computers Imitation Mathematics

Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.

Alan Turing

People, Sometimes, Imagine

"An Oscars Speech That Reaches Out to the Rejected and the Misunderstood" by Colette Douglas Home, www.heraldscotland.com. February 24, 2015.

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We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.

Alan Turing

Travel, Distance, Needs

Alan Mathison Turing, B. J. Copeland (2004). “The Essential Turing”, p.463, Oxford University Press

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A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.

Alan Turing

Believe, Intelligent, Hype

"Computing Machinery and Intelligence". Book by Alan Turing, 1950.

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If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent.

Alan Turing

Intelligent, Machines, Expected

Alan Mathison Turing, B. J. Copeland (2004). “The Essential Turing”, p.394, Oxford University Press

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One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, "My little computer said such a funny thing this morning".

Alan Turing

Morning, Funny Things, One Day

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Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books.

Alan Turing

Book, Practice, Skills

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Mathematical reasoning may be regarded.

Alan Turing

May, Mathematics, Mathematical

Alan Mathison Turing, B. J. Copeland (2004). “The Essential Turing”, p.192, Oxford University Press

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Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes hollow.

Alan Turing

People, Feel Good, Satisfaction

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Codes are a puzzle. A game, just like any other game.

Alan Turing

Games, Imitation, Code

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Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.

Alan Turing

Science, Religion, Boundaries

Epigram to Robin Gandy, 1954. "Alan Turing: The Enigma". Book by Andrew Hodges, p. 513, 1992.

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A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.

Alan Turing

Men, Discipline, Machines

"Intelligent Machinery: A Report by A. M. Turing". Submitted to the National Physical Laboratory in 1948. "Key Papers: Cybernetics". Book edited by C. R. Evans and A. D. J. Robertson, 1968.

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We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields.

Alan Turing

Men, Intellectual, Machines

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It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.

Alan Turing

Thinking, Should Have, Long

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Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child's? If this were then subjected to an appropriate course of education one would obtain the adult brain.

Alan Turing

Children, Brain, Mind

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The original question, 'Can machines think?' I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.

Alan Turing

Believe, Thinking, Machines

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No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain.

Alan Turing

Powerful, Brain, Telephones

Quoted in Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma of Intelligence (1983)

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I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.

Alan Turing

Believe, Thinking, Machines

"Computing Machinery and Intelligence". Mind - A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy, Volume 59, No. 236, p. 442, 1950.

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Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.

Alan Turing

Machines, Surprise, Programming

"Computing Machinery and Intelligence". Mind - A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy, Volume 59, No. 236, p. 450, 1950.

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Unless in communicating with it one says exactly what one means, trouble is bound to result.

Alan Turing

Mean, Trouble, Funny Computer

B. E. Carpenter, Alan Mathison Turing, Michael Woodger (1986). “A.M. Turing's ACE report of 1946 and other papers”, The MIT Press

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There is, however, one feature that I would like to suggest should be incorporated in the machines, and that is a 'random element.' Each machine should be supplied with a tape bearing a random series of figures, e.g., 0 and 1 in equal quantities, and this series of figures should be used in the choices made by the machine. This would result in the behaviour of the machine not being by any means completely determined by the experiences to which it was subjected, and would have some valuable uses when one was experimenting with it.

Alan Turing

Art, Mean, Choices Made

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Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity. The activity of the intuition consists in making spontaneous judgements which are not the result of conscious trains of reasoning. The exercise of ingenuity in mathematics consists in aiding the intuition through suitable arrangements of propositions, and perhaps geometrical figures or drawings.

Alan Turing

Exercise, Two, Drawing

"Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals". Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Series 2, Volume 45, 1939.

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The idea behind digital computers may be explained by saying that these machines are intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer.

Alan Turing

Ideas, Machines, Done

"Computing Machinery and Intelligence". Mind - A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy, Volume 59, No. 236, p. 436, 1950.

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Up to a point, it is better to just let the snags [bugs] be there than to spend such time in design that there are none.

Alan Turing

Design, Bugs, Software

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We are not interested in the fact that the brain has the consistency of cold porridge.

Alan Turing

Consistency, Brain, Facts

Alan Mathison Turing, B. J. Copeland (2004). “The Essential Turing”, p.477, Oxford University Press

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My little computer said such a funny thing this morning.

Alan Turing

Morning, Funny Things, Littles

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Born: June 23, 1912
Died: June 7, 1954
Occupation: Mathematician
Cite this Page: Citation

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