The Universal Turing Machine: A Half-Century Survey - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198537743 ISBN 13: 9780198537748

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1992

Synopsis

This volume commemorates the work of Alan Turing, who not only introduced the most persuasive and influential concept of a machine model of effective computability but also anticipated in his work contemporary debates about the extent and limitations of mechanistic explanations of nature. Turing's paper "On Computable Numbers, With an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" appeared in 1937. It contained Turing's thesis that every "effective" computation can be programmed on a Turing machine. Furthermore it contained the unsolvability of both the halting problem and the decision problem for first-order logic, and it presented the invention of the universal Turing machine. The publication of this paper is acknowledged as a landmark of the computer age. Part I of this volume explores the historical aspect with essays on the background, on Turing's work, and subsequent developments. Part II contains an extensive series of essays on the influence and applications of these ideas in mathematics, philosophy, computer science, artificial intelligence, and physics. The book will interest a wide range of readers in these fields, in addition to historians of science and ideas.

About this title

Review

'a generally well-written account of Turing's work which manages to convey the broad scope of his influence on later developments in mathematical logic, computer science, and artificial intelligence. I would recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in computability theory or mathematical logic and its applications in computer science... One of the great merits of the book is that it is relatively self-contained and the material is largely expository and consequently the book will also attract the lay reader who is interested in the development of mathematical ideas... this collection is to be welcomed as a fitting tribute to the work of one of the most influential figures in mathematical logic and computer science.' Journal of Logic and Computation '... a fitting tribute to one of the most influential figures in mathematical logic and computer science.' Journal of Logic and Computation

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198537743
• ISBN 13: 9780198537748
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 676
• Editor: Herken Rolf