Editing Alan Turing (section)

===Early computers and the Turing test===
[[File:Alan Turing 78 High Street Hampton blue plaque.jpg|thumb|Plaque, 78 High Street, [[Hampton, London|Hampton]]]]
Between 1945 and 1947, Turing lived in [[Hampton, London|Hampton]], London,<ref>{{openplaque|1619}}</ref> while he worked on the design of the [[ACE (computer)|ACE]] (Automatic Computing Engine) at the [[National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)|National Physical Laboratory (NPL)]]. He presented a paper on 19 February 1946, which was the first detailed design of a [[stored-program computer]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Copeland|2006|p=108}}</ref> [[John von Neumann|Von Neumann]]'s incomplete ''[[First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC]]'' had predated Turing's paper, but it was much less detailed and, according to [[John R. Womersley]], Superintendent of the NPL Mathematics Division, it "contains a number of ideas which are Dr. Turing's own".<ref>{{cite news | last = Randell | first = Brian | author-link = Brian Randell | title = A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century: Colossus | year = 1980 | url = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/research/pubs/books/papers/133.pdf | access-date = 27 January 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120127144927/http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/research/pubs/books/papers/133.pdf | archive-date = 27 January 2012 | url-status = live }} citing {{Cite journal | last = Womersley | first = J.R. | author-link = John R. Womersley | title = 'ACE' Machine Project | journal=Executive Committee, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex | date = 13 February 1946 }}</ref>

Although ACE was a feasible design, the effect of the [[Official Secrets Act 1939|Official Secrets Act]] surrounding the wartime work at Bletchley Park made it impossible for Turing to explain the basis of his analysis of how a computer installation involving human operators would work.<ref>{{cite book |title=Alan Turing: The Enigma |publisher=Princeton University Press |author-link=Andrew Hodges |last=Hodges |first=Andrew |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4muYDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Twenty%20years%20ahead%20of%20his%20time%22 416] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-691-16472-4}}</ref> This led to delays in starting the project and he became disillusioned. In late 1947 he returned to Cambridge for a sabbatical year during which he produced a seminal work on ''Intelligent Machinery'' that was not published in his lifetime.<ref>See {{harvnb|Copeland|2004b|pp=410–432}}</ref> While he was at Cambridge, the [[Pilot ACE]] was being built in his absence. It executed its first program on 10 May 1950, and a number of later computers around the world owe much to it, including the [[English Electric DEUCE]] and the American [[Bendix G-15]]. The full version of Turing's ACE was not built until after his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.npl.co.uk/about/history/notable-individuals/turing/|title=Turing at NPL|access-date=3 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705082340/http://www.npl.co.uk/about/history/notable-individuals/turing/|archive-date=5 July 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to the memoirs of the German computer pioneer [[Heinz Billing]] from the [[Max Planck Institute for Physics]], published by Genscher, Düsseldorf, there was a meeting between Turing and [[Konrad Zuse]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zuse.pdf|title=Did Alan Turing interrogate Konrad Zuse in Göttingen in 1947?|author=Bruderer, Herbert|access-date=7 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521211106/http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/Turing_Zuse.pdf|archive-date=21 May 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> It took place in [[Göttingen]] in 1947. The interrogation had the form of a colloquium. Participants were Womersley, Turing, Porter from England and a few German researchers like Zuse, Walther, and Billing (for more details see Herbert Bruderer, ''Konrad Zuse und die Schweiz'').

[[File:Alan Turing Blue Plaque, University of Manchester.jpg|thumb|right|A [[blue plaque]] commmemorating Alan Turing's work at the [[University of Manchester]] where he was a [[Reader (academic rank)|Reader]] from 1948 to 1954]]

In 1948, Turing was appointed [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]] in the [[School of Mathematics, University of Manchester|Mathematics Department]] at the [[University of Manchester]]. He lived at "Copper Folly", 43 Adlington Road, in [[Wilmslow]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/alan-turing-enigma-machine-home-20918089|title=Alan Turing's home could be yours - for £1.1m|first=Charlotte|last=Dobson|date=28 June 2021|website=Manchester Evening News}}</ref> A year later, he became deputy director of the Computing Machine Laboratory, where he worked on software for one of the earliest [[Von Neumann architecture|stored-program]] computers—the [[Manchester Mark 1]]. Turing wrote the first version of the Programmer's Manual for this machine, and was recruited by Ferranti as a consultant in the development of their commercialised machine, the Ferranti Mark 1. He continued to be paid consultancy fees by Ferranti until his death.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.manturing.net/|title=Alan Turing's Manchester|last=Swinton|first=Jonathan|publisher=Infang Publishing|year=2019|isbn=978-0-9931789-2-4|location=Manchester|access-date=18 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190217172318/https://www.manturing.net/|archive-date=17 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> During this time, he continued to do more abstract work in mathematics,<ref name="doi10.1093/qjmam/1.1.287">{{Cite journal|last1 = Turing |first1 = A.M.|doi = 10.1093/qjmam/1.1.287 |title = Rounding-Off Errors in Matrix Processes |journal = The Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics |volume = 1| pages = 287–308 |year = 1948| issue=1 |hdl = 10338.dmlcz/103139|doi-access = free }}</ref> and in "[[Computing Machinery and Intelligence]]",<ref name=mind>{{cite q|Q772056}}</ref> Turing addressed the problem of [[artificial intelligence]], and proposed an experiment that became known as the [[Turing test]], an attempt to define a standard for a machine to be called "intelligent". The idea was that a computer could be said to "think" if a human interrogator could not tell it apart, through conversation, from a human being.<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=Stevan Harnad |last=Harnad |first=Stevan |year=2008 |chapter-url=http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262954/ |chapter=The Annotation Game: On Turing (1950) on Computing, Machinery and Intelligence |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018070225/https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262954/ |archive-date=18 October 2017 |editor1-last=Epstein |editor1-first=Robert |editor2-last=Peters |editor2-first=Grace |title=Parsing the Turing Test: Philosophical and Methodological Issues in the Quest for the Thinking Computer |publisher=Springer|isbn=9781402067082 }}</ref> In the paper, Turing suggested that rather than building a program to simulate the adult mind, it would be better to produce a simpler one to simulate a child's mind and then to subject it to a course of education. A [[Turing test#Reverse Turing test and CAPTCHA|reversed]] form of the Turing test is widely used on the Internet; the [[CAPTCHA]] test is intended to determine whether the user is a human or a computer.

In 1948, Turing, working with his former undergraduate colleague, [[D.G. Champernowne]], began writing a [[chess]] program for a computer that did not yet exist. By 1950, the program was completed and dubbed the [[Turochamp]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Clark|first=Liat|title=Turing's achievements: codebreaking, AI and the birth of computer science|url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/18/turing-contributions?page=all|magazine=Wired|access-date=11 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102122933/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/18/turing-contributions?page=all|archive-date=2 November 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1952, he tried to implement it on a [[Ferranti Mark 1]], but lacking enough power, the computer was unable to execute the program. Instead, Turing "ran" the program by flipping through the pages of the algorithm and carrying out its instructions on a chessboard, taking about half an hour per move. The game was recorded.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1356927 |title=Alan Turing vs Alick Glennie (1952) "Turing Test" |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060219033248/http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1356927 |archive-date=19 February 2006 |website=Chessgames.com}}</ref> According to [[Garry Kasparov]], Turing's program "played a recognizable game of chess".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kasparov |first=Garry |title=Smart machines will free us all |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=15–16 April 2017 |page=c3}}</ref> The program lost to Turing's colleague [[Alick Glennie]], although it is said that it won a game against Champernowne's wife, Isabel.<ref>{{mactutor|id=Champernowne|title=David Gawen Champernowne}}</ref>

His Turing test was a significant, characteristically provocative, and lasting contribution to the debate regarding artificial intelligence, which continues after more than half a century.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Pinar Saygin | first1 = A. | last2 = Cicekli | first2 = I. | last3 = Akman | first3 = V. | journal = Minds and Machines | volume = 10 | issue = 4 | pages = 463–518 | year = 2000 |title=Turing Test: 50 Years Later| doi = 10.1023/A:1011288000451 | hdl = 11693/24987 | s2cid = 990084 | hdl-access = free }}</ref>