Alan Turing Lectures

Turing and Intelligent Machines

Turing and Intelligent Machines

Nicole Wyatt discusses Turing's interest in the possibility of machine intelligence and the 'Turing Test'.

The Heart in Exile Cover

Alan Turing, the Politics of Sexual Science, and the Making of a Gay Icon

Chris Waters discusses Turing’s sexual proclivities and their meanings in the context of his times, and the shaping of Turing’s posthumous reputation as a gay icon.

Daisy

Alan Turing and the Patterns of Life

Przemysław Prusinkiewicz explains reaction-diffusion, a mechanism for the emergence of complex patterns in chemical reactions proposed by Turing, and now a central concept in the study of patterns and forms in nature.

Enigma Machine

Alan Turing and Enigma

John R. Ferris discusses Turing's work with British codebreaking during the Second World War, especially work at Bletchley Park in developing cryptanalytical machines for use against Enigma in 1940–41

Detail of the ACE

Turing's Real Machines

Michael R. Williams describes the code-breaking machines and early electronic computers that Turing helped design at Bletchley Park and later at the NPL and Manchester University.

Cover of Turing's paper

Alan Turing and the Decision Problem

Richard Zach discusses Turing's abstract, mathematical model of computability and his proof that no Turing machine could solve the decision problem of logic.