7
PERSPECTIVE
I’ve been interested in Alan Turing’s life
and work since my supervising professor
at Queen’s University asked me to write a
Turing Machine simulator in 1978. Most
computer science students still learn in
their symbolic logic course about Turing’s
theoretical construct and how it serves
as the basis of
all
programmable general-
use computers.
As a computer science teacher at SPS,
I didn’t have much cause to think about
Turing, even though his definitive biogra-
phy,
The Enigma
by Andrew Hodges, was
published in 1983 – the year I started
teaching. Eventually I read Turing’s tragic
story. Around 1996, the School began to
offer a course in Artificial Intelligence. I
remember the class running a Turing
Test presentation in the Payson lecture
hall. I was so intrigued that I decided to
study AI during a 1998-99 sabbatical and
came back to St. Paul’s ready to teach it.
Turing’s seminal 1950 paper,
Comput-
ing Machinery and Intelligence
, had as
the title of its first section “The Imitation
Game” – based on a popular parlor game
that tests human versus artificial intelli-
gence. If a certain percentage of the ques-
tioners were fooled into thinking the
computer program was human, Turing
suggested we could categorize that pro-
gram as “intelligent.” In that 1950 paper,
he predicted that a learning system
armed with the knowledge level of a baby
might pass his test in 50 years. Reading
Turing’s paper is how all my AI students
begin the course, and it informs our
central theme.
My fascination with Turing has grown
into an admitted obsession. Turing designed
and built the first programmable computer
and coined the term “computer,” created
the test for gauging computer intelligence
still in use today, and, it can be argued,
won World War II for the Allies due to his
code-breaking work at England’s Bletchley
Park. My 2012 invitation to create a pro-
posal for a Form of 1973 Mentor Fellow-
ship aligned with the 100th anniversary
celebration of Turing’s birth. I proposed
that I travel to England on a “Turing tour”
of sorts, primarily visiting Bletchley to
research the code-breaking techniques
and devices developed during the war.
I then turned to the international com-
mittee planning a yearlong Turing celebra-
tion. Their response solidified my plans for
a March 2013 visit to England. I arranged
to meet Dr. Bernard Richards – Turing’s
final graduate student – in Manchester. I
took advantage of the expertise of Patricia
McGuire at the Kings College Archives. I
visited with Brian Mulholland at the Mu-
seum of Science & Industry in Manchester,
which recreated the first programmable
computer, using Turing’s design specifi-
cations. I got a personal tour of
Code-
breaker: Turing’s Life and Legacy
from
curator David Rooney at the Science
Museum, London.
That trip to England was life-changing.
Seeing the Turing exhibit profoundly
affected what and how I teach. Reading
Turing’s original papers in the Cambridge
University archives revealed his broad
interests. Talking to the Bletchley Park
docents (many of whom worked there
during the war) supported Hodges’s view
that Turing’s particular genius lay in no-
ticing solutions to problems that seemed
obvious once he explained them, but which
always eluded others until he pointed
them out. Finally, talking to Dr. Richards
in Manchester gave me a sense of the
direction in which Turing was headed –
away from computer design and toward
applying computers to interesting prob-
lems. The two had met days before Turing’s
1954 death and had an appointment sched-
uled for the day after his death. Turing,
Dr. Richards says, was in great spirits and
fascinated with their shared work.
This fall, I gave a science lecture at SPS
on Turing in which I proposed that he was
the most important person of the 20th
century. When I learned Concord’s Red
River Theatres was due to show the
Imi-
tation Game
, I offered to deliver my lecture
as an accompaniment to the film. For
those who have seen the movie but don’t
know much about Turing, it is important
to note that the Bletchley people didn’t
dislike him; they revered him, though
recognizing his eccentricities. I feel the
same way.
Turing Tour
by Ter
ry War
drop ’73
PETER FINGER
