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

Alan Turing

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Alan Turing
Age: 41 †
Born: 1912
Born: June 23
Died: 1954
Died: June 7
Artificial Intelligence Researcher
Computer Scientist
Cryptographer
Logician
Marathon Runner
Mathematician
Statistician
University Teacher
Warrington Lodge Medical and Surgery Home for Ladies
Alan M. Turing
Alan Mathieson Turing
Turing
Alan Mathison Turing
Men
Effect
Machines
Subject
Rubber
Discipline
Pencil
Universal
Pencils
Subjects
Strict
Paper
Provided
Effects
Machine

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We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields.
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In attempting to construct such (artificially intelligent) machines we should not be irreverently usurping His (God's) power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children,” Turing had advised. “Rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates.
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The original question, 'Can machines think?' I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.
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No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain.
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Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.
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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.
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Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.
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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.
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We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.
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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.
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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.
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Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books.
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No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I'm after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.
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The Exclusion Principle is laid down purely for the benefit of the electrons themselves, who might be corrupted (and become dragons or demons) if allowed to associate too freely.
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My little computer said such a funny thing this morning.
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We are not interested in the fact that the brain has the consistency of cold porridge.
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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.
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Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity.
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