ALAN TURING LIFE STORY

Cryptologia, Jan 2005 by Kruh, Louis

ALAN TURING LIFE STORY Teuscher, Christof (Ed.) Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker. Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Ave., New York NY 10010 USA. 2004. 542 pp. $69.95.

This remarkable volume is the serendipitous result of Christof Teuscher realizing in September 2001 that Turing would have celebrated his 90th birthday on June 23, 2002. Originating from this thought came "Turing Day: Computing Science 90 Years from the Birth of Alan Mathison Turing" in Lausanne, Switzerland, which drew an international audience exceeding 250 participants.

Eventually, all Touring Day speakers and many other experts contributed to this comprehensive collection of 21 essays designed to shed light on Turing, his ideas and rich legacy. The collection is divided into 6 parts: Turing's Life and Thoughts, Computation and Turing Machines, Artificial Intelligence and the Turing Test, The Enigma, and Almost Forgotten Ideas. This book is the definitive collection of commemorative essays, and the distinguished contributors have expertise in such diverse fields as artificial intelligence, natural computing, mathematics, physics, cryptography, cognitive studies, philosophy and anthropology. The volume spans the entire rich spectrum of Turing's life, research work and legacy. New light is shed on the future of computing science by visionary Ray Kurzweil. Notable contributions come from the philosopher Daniel Dennett, the Turing biographer Andrew Hodges, and the distinguished logician Martin Davis, who provides a first critical essay on an emerging and controversial field termed hypercomputation. A special feature of the book is the play by Valeria Patera, which tackles the scandal surrounding the last apple, and presents as an enigma the life, death and destiny of the man who did so much to decipher the Enigma code during the Second World War.

Other chapters are modern reappraisals of Turing's work on computability, and deal with the major philosophical questions raised by the Turing Test, while the book also contains essays addressing his less well-known idea on Fibonacci phyllotaxis and connectionism.