Alan Turing Quotes

Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.

We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.

A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.

If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent.

One day ladies will take their computers for walks in the park and tell each other, "My little computer said such a funny thing this morning".

Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books.

Mathematical reasoning may be regarded.

Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes hollow.

Codes are a puzzle. A game, just like any other game.

Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.

A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.

We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields.

It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.

Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child's? If this were then subjected to an appropriate course of education one would obtain the adult brain.

The original question, 'Can machines think?' I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.

No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain.

Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.

I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.

Unless in communicating with it one says exactly what one means, trouble is bound to result.

There is, however, one feature that I would like to suggest should be incorporated in the machines, and that is a 'random element.' Each machine should be supplied with a tape bearing a random series of figures, e.g., 0 and 1 in equal quantities, and this series of figures should be used in the choices made by the machine. This would result in the behaviour of the machine not being by any means completely determined by the experiences to which it was subjected, and would have some valuable uses when one was experimenting with it.

Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity. The activity of the intuition consists in making spontaneous judgements which are not the result of conscious trains of reasoning. The exercise of ingenuity in mathematics consists in aiding the intuition through suitable arrangements of propositions, and perhaps geometrical figures or drawings.

The idea behind digital computers may be explained by saying that these machines are intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer.

Up to a point, it is better to just let the snags [bugs] be there than to spend such time in design that there are none.

We are not interested in the fact that the brain has the consistency of cold porridge.

My little computer said such a funny thing this morning.