by Edward Ortiz
What worlds, known or unknown, would have been made possible had Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954) not died of cyanide poisoning at the age of 42? For not only was Turing working on advanced problems in biology and physics at the time, he had already contributed his major part to the development of the intelligent computer.
Born in London into a scientifically undistinguished family, Turing was said to have taught himself to write in a short span of only several weeks. After reading, and being inspired by the book "Natural Wonders Every Child Should Know" Turing gave his life completely to science. Headstrong, eccentric and prone to solitary pursuits, Turing distinguished himself as a brilliant mathematician at King's College Cambridge, and, later, at Princeton began work on proofs that established the foundation of the British computer.
It was around this time that Turing invented the "Turing Machine"- a machine that can automatically compute anything a human can compute within finite time. The Turing Machine was an abstract concept that represented the actions of a computer. This concept entailed the writing of certain precisely defined operations onto a tape of infinite length. As such, the Turing Machine would be an incalculable influence on computability and computers themselves.
After the war Turing published "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"-considered a seminal work dealing with Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy. Turing also ventured into the area of morphogenisis-the theory of growth and form in biology. Turing was also dealing with a machine's ability to think, and the possibility of building intelligent machines.
Turing was not only a brilliant scientist but an accomplished long distance runner who once considered entering the Olympics as a cross country runner. Solitary and nonconformist, Turing was to suffer the inglorious misfortune of being arrested for being a homosexual. Ultimately, Turing was denied the security clearance that allowed him his work in cipher intelligence with the British Government. He was tried and punished by a British Court in 1952.
As befalls many geniuses, Turing meet an untimely death. On June 7, 1954 he was found dead. Many labelled the death accidental owing to the fact that Turing kept many poisonous bottles about his house. The coroner listed Turing's death a suicide. The world will never know for sure. More importantly is what is known...the fact Alan Mathison Turing gave science, and the world, the very groundwork which made the intelligent computer a thing of reality and infinite wonder-a truly heroic task!
