Thousands Calling For Apology To Founder Of Computer Science

Gizmodo Australia / BBC ^ | 1 Sept., 2009 | By Joanna Stern

[trisham]

That’s your interpretation, rude boy.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Charming. None of the computers you mentioned used stored programming."

Of course they did. whether a punch card or a drum, that is STORED programing. Just what device did Turing actually INVENT? Oh that's right NOTHING. Just a piece of paper with some questions on it...

[TomOnTheRun]

Vacuum tubes are great for amplification. Not so great for switching. Transistors are great for switching. Not so great for amplificationExcellent! I'm glad to see that people still study the physical basics and evolution of computers. I wasn't sure they did. Comendable.

[achilles2000]

The truth may not change, but unfortunately the law does.

BTW, this article follows the usual leftist template. “Father of the computer” (ridiculus) and breaker of the Enigma codes (rubbish)...persecuted (sob) because he enjoying buggering men and boys (boo hoo)

Regarding Enigma, the basic work was done by a Polish Catholic mathematician who got some inside help from Germany. A lot of people were involved in breaking Enigma, and Turing made a contribution, but not the most important contribution.

[steve-b]

Apologies are USUALLY for something that was thought to be proper and correct at the time that is now considered to be bad/unhealthy/oppressive/etc.

Precisely. By the "logic" of some people on this thread, if you got drunk off your ass and caused a scene last night, there's no reason you should have to apologize today (after all, you're perfectly sober and well-behaved now).

[Nathan Zachary]

"Institutions should be forced to acknowledge their errors, thus reducing the chance that they will be repeated. Duh."

There is no proof whatsoever that it was an "error". Sexual perverts should still be castrated, and in fact are.

[TomOnTheRun]

An intelligence test. Actual sentience does not exist by virtue of an external observer's belief in it, any more than another real monkey exists in the mirror's reflection.

No. And that is not what the test implied. That was only the first test - he wrote other papers with other tests to follow (The fame of this outweighing the others which are not much spoken of). This was a point to be reached before any further consideration of AI was considered. Of course even getting to that point is a monumental challenge that hasn't been properly satisfied.

Again, so what? You're chasing your non sequitur around in a circle.

Well .. since you brought it up - it's not directly comparable to the turing test - and many monkeys can in fact know that their reflection is a reflection rather than another monkey it seems the non-sequiter isn't mine...

[Mojave]

Just what device did Turing actually INVENT? Oh that's right NOTHING. Just a piece of paper with some questions on it...

It also contained some bogus predictions, such as Turing's claim that computers would be generally accepted as thinking by around the year 2000.

[Mojave]

And that is not what the test implied.

False.

many monkeys can in fact know that their reflection is a reflection rather than another monkey it seems the non-sequiter isn't mine...

It's yours.

[CodeToad]

“Alan M. Turing was in fact one of the primary founders of computer science.

The Association for Computing Machinery since 1966 has awarded the A. M. Turing Award:

“

Because someone gives an award in someone else’s name that makes a fact of claim?

[TomOnTheRun]

There is no proof whatsoever that it was an "error". Sexual perverts should still be castrated, and in fact are.

*grin* Go ahead and try to convince a majority of the population that homosexuals should be castrated. Try to convince people that the treatment of Turing was acceptable by modern standards. I've got flying bacon to hunt.

[trisham]

I'm guessing the reason for this now is due to the successful work of a relatively small group who rigorously advance the homosexual agenda.

[TomOnTheRun]

Just what device did Turing actually INVENT? Oh that's right NOTHING. Just a piece of paper with some questions on it...

Turing replaced Godel's universal arithmetic-based formal language with what are now called Turing machines. He proved that some such machine would be capable of performing any conceivable mathematical problem if it were representable as an algorithm. Without those ideas nobody would have been able to build the modern computers that we currently use. Did he build it with his own hands - no. Did he make it possible to build them - yes.

It also contained some bogus predictions, such as Turing's claim that computers would be generally accepted as thinking by around the year 2000

Predictions for 50 years out shouldn't be the judge of genius.

[HamiltonJay]

Apologize for what? He broke the laws of his day and was prosecuted and punished for it.

If a Christian demands an apology from the Jews for executing Christ they are painted as insane.

Here, I appologize to all dead people everywhere and throughout time because I couldn’t figure out a way to stop death.. for this I am sincerely sorry.

What idiocy.

[Mojave]

Turing was a pseudo-scientific lunatic. Let's see what the crackpot actually wrote:

"I assume that the reader is familiar with the idea of extra-sensory perception, and the meaning of the four items of it, viz. telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psycho-kinesis. These disturbing phenomena seem to deny all our usual scientific ideas. How we should like to discredit them! Unfortunately the statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming." --COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE, BY A.M.TURING

[Nathan Zachary]

The point is, functioning digital computers were already in development BEFORE this guy wrote anything, so the claim that he is any sort of "father of computer science" is bogus.

It obviously took years before the ENIAC Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, constructed in the US in 1943 was completed, which is also known to be the driving force of computing hardware development and one of such use of computers was in communications encryption and decryption.

Charles Babbage 1837 Analytical Engine also used "stored" programs, so he was actually the "father of computer science".

[TomOnTheRun]

I'm guessing the reason for this now is due to the successful work of a relatively small group who rigorously advance the homosexual agenda.

Probably. But the vast majority of people today would consider it an error. At the very least most would say they squandered his intellect. I have no problem with the state saying that they wouldn't do this again and that it is wrong by contemporary standards.

[HamiltonJay]

I pray to God you do not have a degree in Computer Science, because if you do, you are so patently ignorant of the field based on your statements, that your professors and college should be stripped of their ability to teach.

[Mojave]

Ah, but did those earlier computers have Turing style telepathic abilities?

[MrB]

I thought they captured an Enigma machine from a submarine and reverse engineered it.

Or was that just “movie history”?