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Turing: his life, his work, his influence. (Italian. English summary) Zbl 1391.01020

Summary: Written on the occasion of his birth’s 100th anniversary, this article revisits the main steps of Alan Turing’s life, and illustrates his fundamental contributions and his preeminent impact in the foundation of modern computer science. After an initial section that outlines Turing’s biography and his most important results, we give a detailed presentation tailored to a general public with basic mathematical background but no expertise in theoretical computer science of what is possibly the most important and best known result of Turing’s: his 1937 paper on the theory of computation, which introduces the class of automata known as “Turing machines”. Finally, in the closing section we offer some historical/philosophical remarks about the notion of computation and its intrinsic limitations; this shows how Turing’s contribution goes well beyond the limits of pure theoretical speculation as it carries practical and cultural implications that are general and still markedly relevant to the present time.

MSC:

01A60 History of mathematics in the 20th century
01A70 Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies
68-03 History of computer science

Biographic References:

Turing, Alan Mathison
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