Turing Machines - History and People

How does Turing's work tie in with the development of computers, and why was it so crucial? This article gives a good history of the most important contributions to computing. To understand why Hilbert's "Entscheidungsproblem" launched Turing toward his discoveries, read this article.

Charles Babbage:

This inventor of the world's first programmable computer was also a mathematician and the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge.

Ada Lovelace:

Known as the world's first programmer and a mathematician in her own right, Lovelace wrote the first programs for Babbage's computer. The programming language Ada was named after her.

David Hilbert:

The MacTutor biography gives some idea of the tremendous influence of this amazing mathematician. More about David Hilbert: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ]

Kurt Gödel:

These pages document Gödel's unusual life [ 1 | 2 ], and the famous incompleteness theorems. More about Kurt Gödel: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ]

Alan Turing:

First look: Here are some very short articles--with different perspectives--about Alan Turing. [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 ]

The Essential Alan Turing: This review by English mathematician Andrew Hodges explains Turing's work and impact in understandable terms, yet is thorough in its approach. Andrew Hodges wrote a good summary of Turing's life; a somewhat different take is here. Hodges also maintains the most complete website on Alan Turing.

What would Alan Turing have done after 1954? Andrew Hodges gave thoughtful lecture about how much more Turing would have accomplished had he not died while still at the height of his intellectual powers.

The multimedia page (accessible below) also includes some useful resources about Turing himself.

And now for something completely different: an Alan Turing chatterbot!