Lecture 12.3: The Amazing Alan Turing - Richard Buckland (extension lecture) UNSW 2008
BackWe had a gap at the end of Lecture 12 so Richard gives a short impromptu extension lecture (ie non-examinable) about the amazing thinker Alan Turing. So much to say, so little time, such fast talking.
We chat about 3 different major contributions he made to the world - his decryption work during WWII and the Engima Machine; his abstract model of a computer (the Turing Machine) and what things can be effectively "computed"; and finally, briefly only, his thoughts about what it is to be human and the difference between humans and computers - the Turing Test.
Alan Turing is a key figure in the development of computing, indeed if I had to pick just one thinker who was the most amazing he'd get my vote.
Richard promises to talk about the Turing Test in more depth in the next extension lecture.
Also comes up:
Epimenides paradox, non computable functions, the halting problem, the Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi,
U-559, Colin Grazier G.C., Anthony Fasson, G.C.,Tommy Brown, Blade Runner,
CAPTCHAs.
Errata:
My memory was about as reliable as usual - I said Tommy stayed outside in a boat but i've since read that all three swam across and went into the U-559. Humbling bravery. I've also since realised that Colin Grazier was from Tamworth in the UK, not the Tamworth in Australia as I had always thought (why are so many English places named after Australian towns?) Finally, something which actually I did know but still managed to get wrong - the important material salvaged was not a cypher machine but quantities of data (ciphertext and the corresponding plaintext I think) which the codebreakers at Bletchley Park were able to use as "cribs" and were of vast help in cracking the submarine code used at that time.
Channel: Education
Uploaded: April 18, 2008 at 5:44 am
Author: unswelearning
Length: 00:25:45
Rating: 5.00
Views: 5004
Tags: Alan Turing Machine Test Engima Bletchley Park Babbage Computing History Computable Halting Problem CAPTCHA U-559 Richard Buckland UNSW computer science comp1917 university lecture
Video Comments:
boxari1980 (January 8, 2009 at 8:03 am)
Friggin' awesome lecture!
McBinary (January 6, 2009 at 6:19 pm)
Funny when he could not figure out the medieval methematicians race. He might as well have said "some darkie that invented algorithms". Tut tut deary me etc
openingsound (December 18, 2008 at 12:35 am)
really great lecture, i should be studying for exams of my own but this grabbed me and i couldnt stop.
bummed out he didnt finish up talking about the turing test.
great prof, these humans are lucky
bummed out he didnt finish up talking about the turing test.
great prof, these humans are lucky
thelastwords (November 25, 2008 at 10:51 am)
This is great..very interesting!
devjock (October 28, 2008 at 4:37 pm)
Excellent lecture.
Also, the part about Blade Runner? The Anime Ghost in The Shell would be a good second movie about robot sentience.
Also, the part about Blade Runner? The Anime Ghost in The Shell would be a good second movie about robot sentience.
bradyoung01 (October 5, 2008 at 4:04 pm)
Instructor is an dynamic speaker, but he doesn't know some of the most basic facts of the subject matter. If you don't know the facts, don't just bluff it and state guesses as if they are facts.
alanzeino (January 1, 2009 at 2:54 am)
You haven't proven that you yourself know the subject matter, so forgive us if we low rank you.
yrotstsohgallet (September 1, 2008 at 4:29 am)
WHAT THE FUCK? what's up with the guy at the end asking if turing was a pedophile?? typical bullshit: allegedly smart people holding ridiculous stereotypes as truth. a person being gay does not mean they are a pedophile, you piece of shit. christ, what a bassackwards motherfucker.
comp1917 (September 4, 2008 at 5:59 am)
oh no I think you have misinterpreted what he meant based on the way that I repeated his question - he asked with a screwed up face trying to pin down some memory of something previously learned. The question threw me considerably and I didn't deal with it well. I later wondered if he had been thinking of the similarly disgraceful and heatbreaking case of the treatment of Oscar Wilde.
eedahl (November 15, 2008 at 10:09 pm)
Ah, hi. I'm just replying here as I assume you might get it then. I found these lectures from searching Gödel, Escher, Bach, because the foreword in the 20yr celeb edition was a huge inspiration when I writing an assignment on AI, using Blade Runner as a base of discussion! Now in retrospect I find you're talking about the same stuff, and you're a very good teacher. So awesome, thanks a bunch, I'm watching it all from 0...n. I'm a Viking btw., and what you played was lapp music :-P 'tis be all.