imitation game movie

[Chuck Guzis]

On 02/10/2015 09:56 AM, Dave G4UGM wrote:

>
> Just because Turing didn't build a computer doesn't mean he wasn't
> the father of computing. The work he did defined both what a computer
> is, and allowed us to divide problems into those which can be solved
> on a computer, and those where   the computer can guess the answer
> enough times that it will eventually get it right.

The point is that a lot of people were responsible for the development 
of mechanical computation (I include electrical and electronic in this 
definition).

Turing didn't invent computation any more than Edison invented the 
incandescent lamp or Shockley et al invented the transistor.

In fact, it could be argued that the ball-and-disc integrator was more 
responsible for the eventual Allied victory in WWII than Turing's work was.

The problem is that history is written by the victors and worse, the 
historians, each with his own particular agenda--and that nothing 
happens in a vacuum.

Let's just say that conditions were ripe for the technological advance 
in computation.

--Chuck