The Once and Future Turing: Computing the World

Description

Alan Turing (1912-1954) made seminal contributions to mathematical logic, computation, computer science, artificial intelligence, cryptography and theoretical biology. In this volume, outstanding scientific thinkers take a fresh look at the great range of Turing's contributions, on how the subjects have developed since his time, and how they might develop still further. The contributors include Martin Davis, J. M. E. Hyland, Andrew R. Booker, Ueli Maurer, Kanti V. Mardia, S. Barry Cooper, Stephen Wolfram, Christof Teuscher, Douglas Richard Hofstadter, Philip K. Maini, Thomas E. Woolley, Eamonn A. Gaffney, Ruth E. Baker, Richard Gordon, Stuart Kauffman, Scott Aaronson, Solomon Feferman, P. D. Welch and Roger Penrose. These specially commissioned essays will provoke and engross the reader who wishes to understand better the lasting significance of one of the twentieth century's deepest thinkers.

Until his death in 2015, S. Barry Cooper was Professor of Mathematical Logic at the University of Leeds. He was both a leading figure in the theory of Turing computability, and a noted advocate of multidisciplinary research, especially in connection with the theoretical and practical limits of the computable. As President of Computability in Europe, he was responsible for many international conferences. He chaired the Turing Centenary Committee, and edited the prize-winning critical edition of Turing's publications: Alan Turing: His Work and Impact. Andrew Hodges is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. His main research is in fundamental physics, as a colleague of Roger Penrose, but he is also the biographer of Alan Turing. His book Alan Turing: The Enigma (1983) has reached a wide audience and has inspired works of drama, music, art and film.

'The 15 highly readable essays gathered here, each worth a review, celebrate Turing's centenary by exploring current developments and philosophical ramifications descending from many sides of Turing's work, not just his famous theory of computation and his code-breaking exploits but also his interests in logic, artificial intelligence, morphogenesis, pattern formation, the Riemann hypothesis, etc ... Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.' D. V. Feldman, CHOICE 'The book under review is a collection of 15 papers written by outstanding scientists. It gives a look at the range of A. M. Turing's contributions and shows how the subjects have been developed since his time and how they might develop still further. The papers are divided into five groups. ... Papers collected in this volume will be interesting to all readers who wish to understand better the lasting significance of Alan Turing and his ideas.' Roman Murawski, Mathematical Reviews