THIS 1936 Paper Theorized the FIRST Computer EVER, by Alan Turing

In 1936, Alan Turing wrote a paper that changed the course of history, titled "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem", first introducing the Universal Turing Machine and laying the theoretical foundation of modern computing . It revolutionized the field of computer science and ultimately led to the development of technologies that have changed the world as we know it.

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[williemaxt]

This new style is really dope. I've been watching you for years and this is a really nice progression. Please keep doing more of these

[lawrencedoliveiro]

Turing also published a groundbreaking paper in an entirely different field, namely biology. He was considering the issue of how the amorphous mass of cells making up a fertilized embryo can suddenly decide that this is its “front” and this is its “back” and that is “the left side” and that is “the right side”.

[nagendradevara]

A perfect tribute video for Alan Turing, Thank you for not placing a sponsor to this video like Brilliant.

[rumplstiltztinkerstein]

Never forget the reason why Alan Turing passed away. He could have kept making breakthroughs in computer science. But he was prosecuted for "homosexual acts". He accepted "hormone treatment" to avoid going to prison, and eventually took his own life with Cyanide.

Every time someone praises Alan Turing for his achievements, don't forget what was done to him.

Thank you for shining a light on his achievements Forrest.

[reginaldcobb]

I love these documentaries. I think a journey down the mini- and super mini-computer history would be interesting. I cut my teeth on those in the late 80's. Also, programming languages.

[arsnakehert]

The core of this particular one of Turing's achievements that became a legacy for computer science was formalizing the notion of an algorithm; Turing machines _are_ algorithms, and the notion of a _computer_ is the _universal_ Turing machine, these are also _algorithms_ that can basically run any other algorithm given its description and input

In a sense, computers such as we know them are hardware implementations of something like UTMs, just like chips that encode and decode video are hardware implementations of the particular algorithms they implement

UTMs can also simulate the operation of other UTMs given their description (and input), which is what makes the notion of emulators start to feel natural and not like black magic; this is something that blew my mind to squishy bits onto the walls and ceiling when I learned it

[DerekGreen]

Another commenter said it a year ago. Charles Babbage developed the first design for a general purpose computer; his Analytical Engine. And Ada Lovelace was the first person to realize that it could have uses beyond pure computation, and so she could be considered the first computer programmer.

[samuelfey]

alan turing a WW2 hero his contributions to computer science changed the world

[lawrencedoliveiro]

6:18 Worth making something very clear here: the program (call it D, the “deciding program”) that decides whether a given program (call it P, the “problem program”) will terminate for input data I is taking both P and I as input data. In other words, a program is input data to another program!

This is a key point about the nature of the Turing machine, and also of all our electronic digital computers: programs and data are both represented using the same set of symbols that can be stored in the memory of the machine. The only difference between the two is, a stream of symbols becomes a “program” only because you point the CPU at the start of that stream and say “run this as a program”.

[lawrencedoliveiro]

7:51 Church and his student Kleene did some interesting work with the λ-calculus. For example, they showed how mathematical paradoxes (like Russell’s paradox) could be represented by expressions that could be manipulated logically without the whole world collapsing about your ears.

Mathematicians go to great lengths to try to ensure that their theories are free of paradoxes. But I think λ-calculus shows how you can tame the paradox and not be afraid of it.

[lawrencedoliveiro]

0:14 Also worth watching, if you like the dramatization approach, is a BBC TV movie about Turing from 1996, called _Breaking The Code_ . This was based on a stage play from 1986.

[LesterFernandezIO]

Wow, I love this new style. Great editing 🔥

[sherlock_]

".. Sometimes it's the people that no one imagines anything of, can do the things that no one can imagine."

[TheFuture]

Alan Turing, Nikola Tesla, Ada lovelace, Thomas Edison, Charles Babbage, Issac Newton, Einstein and Michael Faraday.
My hero's 🥰😍

[rxphi]

Wow😍 I would love to see more videos about the history of CS and the brilliant ideas those early scientists!

[hotdogjon]

I love the new video format! Awesome production

[whizzo]

The photo at 1.00 is of his office at Bletchley Park Hut 8

[МартинТемелакиев]

Everyone is pretty right! You are doing a really pleasant transition. Keep it up!

[lawrencedoliveiro]

5:20 That “which implies” part has not actually been proven. It’s called the “Church-Turing thesis”, and the mathematical term for it is a “conjecture”. It seems to be true, as far as we can tell, in all the examples so far, but, as for the general case, we can’t be sure either way.

[msimon]

Paper tape was a thing. It had holes punched in it to represent letters and numbers.