But it was the first embodiment of a
universal Turing machine. This was one of the great
achievements of Alan’s ‘boyish’ personality.
In 1948 a book called “Cybernetics” was
published. Its author defined the word ‘cybernetics’ in
the following way: “control and communication in the
Animal and the Machine.” It meant the description of
the world in which information and logic, rather than
energy or material constitution, was what mattered”
according to Andrew Hodges. Wiener, the author of
“Cybernetics” regarded Alan as a cybernetician. The
first generation of pioneers in the new sciences of
information and communication included people like
von Neumann, Wiener, Shannon, and pre-eminently
Alan Turing.
Most people who know certain important things
about Alan Turing know how important the book
‘Natural Wonders’ was to him. And the main question
‘Natural Wonders’ asked was: “What have I in
common with other living things?” After the end of
the Second World War Alan was looking for what he
had in common with a computer, and in what ways he
differed.
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