[access-uk] On BBC Radio 4 this morning.

From: Colin Howard <colin@xxxxxxxxx>
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:20:34 +0100
Greetings,

Tuesday, 2012 06 12 - the BBC Radio 4 (UK) website shows:

11:00?11:30 The Turing Solution 
Mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, and his role in the invention of
the computer. 

Program page shows:

Alan Turing, born June 23 1912, is famous for his key role in breaking
German codes in World War 2. But for mathematicians, his greatest work was
on the invention of the computer.

Alan Turing's brilliance at maths was spectacular. Aged 22, just a year
after his graduation, he was elected a fellow of King's College Cambridge.
And it was just a year after, he turned his attention to problems in the
foundations of mathematics and ended up showing a simple machine, set up to
read and write numbers and to run a few basic functions, could in principle
do all the things do-able in mathematics. His 'universal' machine was just a
concept - a paper tape which could be read, interpreted and acted on
robotically. But the concept was profound.

World War II shortly afterwards took Turing's talents into other directions,
but even while designing machines at Bletchley Park to break the German
Enigma codes, he was wondering how much more a computing machine might do -
play chess for example.

And although the war work might have delayed Turing's academic work, it
greatly accelerated progress in electronics, so in 1945 he returned to his
first love, creating a complete design for what he expected to be the
world's first fully programmable computer, the National Physical
Laboratory's ACE - the Automatic Computing Engine. In the end, beset by
hesitation and bureaucratic delays, the ACE was overtaken by a rival team in
Manchester, whose Small Scale Experimental Machine first ran on June 21
1948. But the Manchester Baby, as it became known, fulfilled the
requirements laid down in Turing's seminal 1936 paper, and in a handful of
instructions had the power to do any kind of maths, or data processing, like
a computer of today does.

Turing soon joined the Manchester team, and again with remarkable prescience
started work on artificial intelligence, wondering whether electronic
machines could programmed not just to do maths, but to think in the way
human minds do - a hot topic of debate even now.

Those explorations were cut short by his suicide in 1954, following
prosecution for his homosexuality. His death at a time when official secrecy
still hid his code-breaking work, and when the history of computing was
already being written meant few appreciated his central role in today's
dominant industry. But some enthusiasts hope they can write him back in
where he belongs.

Presenter, Standup Mathematician Matt Parker.

Related Links
BBC History: Alan Turing
Broadcasts
Tue 12 Jun 2012 11:00 BBC Radio 4.
Thu 14 Jun 2012 21:00 BBC Radio 4.

Listen link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jqjl5

Probably no podcast and available for seven days after broadcast.


Colin Howard, living near Southampton in Southern 
England.
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[access-uk] On BBC Radio 4 this morning.

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