Turing. Pioneer of the information age (Q2921235)

This volume provides an account of Alan Turing's life and the impact of his work and ideas. The author is mainly concerned with Turing's pioneering contributions to computing and artificial life/intelligence. Throughout this volume we notice the emphasis on the relevance of his work to modern developments. The story of Alan Turing's contributions to code-breaking during the Second World War is set in the context of his thinking about machines. We also point out the account of his important contributions to the foundations of mathematics.NEWLINENEWLINEThe main features of this book are the following: (i) it provides a biography of one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century; (ii) it 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 at the age of only 41; (iii) it considers the legacy of his work today.NEWLINENEWLINEThe content of this volume is divided into several chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Click to open; Chapter 2: Turing's universal machine; Chapter 3: Sinking Hilbert; Chapter 4: The intuitive mathematician; Chapter 5: Breaking Enigma; Chapter 6: Tunny -- Hitler's BlackBerry; Chapter 7: The colossus of computers; Chapter 8: ACE -- a month's work in a minute; Chapter 9: The Manchester ``electronic brain''; Chapter 10: Artificial intelligence; Chapter 11: The imitation game; Chapter 12: Educating machinery; Chapter 13: Computer chess; Chapter 14: Artificial life; Chapter 15: Epilogue.NEWLINENEWLINEThis book is entertaining and highly informative. This reviewer highly recommends this work to readers interested in Alan Turing, code-breaking, Bletchley Park, the Second World War, and computing history.