WEBVTT - Spotlight on Alan Turing 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.760 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.800 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Pollette and 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:22.960 I am an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.959 It's singing across from me as usual, his senior writer, 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.880 Jonathan Strickland. There was what no one at the Mutant 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.880 Hamster Races. We only had one entry into the Madame 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.000 Curie lookalike contest and he was disqualified later, why do 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:40.360 I even bother? Okay, I have no clue on that one. 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.800 Trust me. We're about to talk about someone who's a 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:48.840 real genius and so, uh it'll come through eventually where 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.000 that quote comes from. So to start this this podcast off, 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:58.560 we actually have a little Facebook feedback you be, and 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.200 this comes from Brian, and Brian says, you guys should 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:05.640 definitely devote an entire podcast to Alan Turing at some point. Well, Brian, 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.160 that point is now, well, who we're gonna do a 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:15.240 spotlight on Alan Turing. I first became acquainted with Mr 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:21.000 Touring's name while reading a novel, actually Neil Stevenson's Cryptonomicon, 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.160 which is, as you might guess from the title, very 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:33.880 heavily oriented around cryptanalysis, cryptography and cryptology, which I find fascinating. 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:38.440 That's basically they're all revolving around codes and code breaking exactly. 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.640 And Touring was known as a very important person in 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.600 the history of code breaking. Although uh, and it's interesting, 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.440 I guess it depends on which circles you you talked to. 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.840 You know what Touring was known for. So he's really 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.920 known as a codebreaker, but he's also known as the 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.360 sort of the father of computer science. Yes, that's true. 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:04.040 That's true. Sort of depends on whom you asked. Very clearly, 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:08.079 he had an extremely important role to play during World 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:10.440 War Two, but we'll we'll get into that first. Let's 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.239 talk a little bit about Touring and where he came 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.080 from and and sort of his background. He's one of 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.400 those individuals that the more you read about him, the 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:23.919 more you realize how incredibly remarkable this guy was. I 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.560 liken him to Ada Lovelace in a way. Ada Lovelace 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:33.680 was another person who had this amazing ability to understand 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.040 mathematics on a level that is is completely foreign to me. 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.480 I mean, I I understand basic math. I don't understand 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:47.160 mathematics the way Touring did, even at a young age. 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.400 So Touring was born in nineteen twelve in Paddington, London. 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.240 Both of his parents were from the upper middle class, 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:59.119 which at that time was class was very very important 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.640 in the UH in England still is to some extent, 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:05.720 but not it's I don't think they're quite as class 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.880 conscious as they used to be. But at anyway, he 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.520 was born to upper middle class parents who got him 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:17.560 into public school UM, and he had a keen interest 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:23.520 in math and science, physics in particular. Yes, Uh, In fact, 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:29.440 he was incredibly gifted in in mathematics. He was reading 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.200 as a teenager. He was reading UH papers written by 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:38.720 Einstein and theorizing on um the nature of relativity, and 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.000 and really understanding it in a way that I still 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:46.720 struggle with today. So clearly a guy who whose genius 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.720 far outstrips any intelligence I might possess. I am more 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.720 than happy to to admit that, because I certainly don't 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.800 understand it on the level he did. While in school, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.600 he happened to meet a student who was a year 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:07.920 ahead of him named Christopher more Comb, now whom he 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:12.960 referred to as Chris, and Chris was another brilliant young student, 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.520 someone who really had a very strong grasp on mathematics 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.680 and physics as well. And Chris and Allan found that 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:27.599 talking together that they could kind of understand mathematics on 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:32.760 an even deeper level by sharing their combined perspectives. And 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:37.039 they struck up a very strong friendship. And unfortunately, Chris 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.279 died in nineteen thirty. He was he was not He 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.800 was not a healthy young boy as it turns out, 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:49.600 So by nineteen Chris dies and that left a huge 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:55.000 gap in Touring's life. I'm sorry you're about to say something. No, 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.640 I was. I was going to say, Uh, Jonathan and 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.800 I took our our source information from a couple of 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.120 really exhaustive sources. Um. I took a lot of mine 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:10.160 from the from Touring's actual website, which is maintained by 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.880 one of his biographers, Andrew Hodges. Yes. Yes, Andrew Hodges 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.200 wrote a book called Alan Touring The Enigma. I highly 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.320 recommend this book. I've actually I read it ages and 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.760 ages ago, and I revisited it for this podcast, and 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.920 it is a very good biography that that really kind 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:32.480 of dives into not just the the accomplishments that Touring 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.680 achieved during his lifetime, and not only in the and 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.520 the foundation he laid for computer science, but also his 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.120 personal life and how that kind of shaped what he 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:47.320 did and who he was. Yep, I haven't read it yet. 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:49.839 I want to pick it up. But the other source 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:51.719 that I consulted for this, and I know that Jonathan 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.919 did too, was the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which is 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.240 an awesome site to have used it for other podcasts. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:02.520 But in doing the research and learning more about Chris 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:06.000 more Com, I think that one of the interesting things 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.039 that this pulled out for him from touring, based on 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:15.520 the biographical the Hodges website, was that for some time, 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.160 for two or three years afterwards, he spent a lot 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:23.039 of time thinking about human consciousness and what happens to 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:27.719 that information basically how I I assume from that that 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.279 he was thinking about how the brain stores information and 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.200 where that information goes when somebody dies. Right, Yeah, he 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:39.200 became very focused on the subjects of mind and matter. Yes, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.120 where where does where does one begin? On the other end, 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.120 are they one and the same? Is the human mind 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.760 just a you know? Is it just a material construct or? 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:54.479 Is there some other element there that is indefinable really 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.240 as far as you know we can understand right now. Um, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.440 this kind of led him into a study of physics yep. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:03.200 And I think it has a lot to do with 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:08.279 the uh, the genesis of the touring test, whether computers 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.560 can can think. But these are things where we'll talk 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.280 about more in a minute. But I think it's interesting 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:17.800 that an event like this may have prompted him to 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.920 consider more serious matters and and take him in different 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.800 directions of study later in life. Yeah, yeah, it was. 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:27.920 I would definitely call that a pivotal moment in his life. 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.440 One wonders what his life would have been like had 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:37.480 had more Coum not died. So he graduates from public 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.239 school and then goes to attend King's College at Cambridge University. Um, 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:45.480 it's here where he really starts to study various kinds 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:50.520 of deep mathematics, including probability and um number theory, stuff 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.040 that goes well beyond my basic understanding. It's also where 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:58.680 he first begins to come to grips with his sexuality. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.520 Alan tour ing if you did not know I was 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:06.080 a homosexual, and he kind of really started to discover 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:11.120 this during college and college was a pretty um open 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.880 environment compared to his public school. Like public school was 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:19.760 a very controlled environment, a very conservative environment, and the 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:24.160 college as was almost the opposite. So Touring really experienced 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.480 a complete change in culture by the time he went 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:31.880 to college. So I'm sorry I was going to say that. 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:36.640 He also during this period started to become involved with 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:41.880 some very liberal thinkers of the time, UM, economists like 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:47.720 like Keynes and Pigou. Um. You know, people have have suggested, 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.560 I think that he may have been moving in so 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.200 far as to be Marxist, but I don't believe he 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.760 actually ever was formally affiliated with people like that. But 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.520 he was. He was exposing himself to some very uh, 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.920 some very liberal people at that point, and in a 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.880 variety of uh ways of speaking about it. Yeah, there 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.920 were a lot of anti war intellectuals that he was 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.080 he was friends with, or at least he moved in 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.320 the same circles that they did. Um. He never really 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.120 seemed to express a particularly strong political opinion. No, no, 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.800 not not from what I've read. Um, this was in 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.920 the in the early nineteen thirties, so we're talking the 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:31.800 period between worlds World wars, one and two. Um. And 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:36.040 of course economics playing a terrific part in terrific I 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.880 mean very large part in uh, the outbreak of World 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.760 War two. Um. So you know these are these are 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:45.920 things much on the minds of of people in the 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.559 very early twentieth century. Certainly right. So in nineteen thirty 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.400 four he graduates from King's College. In nineteen he's elected 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.760 a fellow to the college, which means he actually draws 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.880 a stipend. Uh. And in ninety six he's awarded a 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.800 Smith's Prize for his work in probability theory. So during 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.520 this period he was starting to specialize in quantum mechanics 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.720 and logic as well as probability. And then we get 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.559 to nineteen thirty six, which is the year in which 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:17.319 he theorized in a device called the touring machine. Yes, 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.400 this was purely theoretical, not an actual physical device, but 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.080 he theorized that it would be possible to create a 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:30.040 machine that could complete a computational operation the same way 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:34.439 the human mind would. So it simulates what the human 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:39.760 mind goes through to perform a very specific operation. Now, 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:45.320 each each Turing machine could only perform one kind of operation. Yes, 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.280 so uh, it wasn't like it would be like if 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.439 you if you told one person they could only this 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.840 is oversimplifying, but telling one person they could only add numbers, 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.680 and another person they could only multiply numbers, they would 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.000 not be able to swa oper roles at all. They 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.520 could only do that one simple operation. You could give 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.719 them different numbers, but they could only perform that one 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.640 operation upon the numbers. Then this led him to then 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:14.720 theorize a universal touring machine. Yes, something that could handle 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.560 more than one task, right, it could. It could perform 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:22.640 all the operations that individual touring machine machines could perform. 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.400 So the universal touring machine was sort of really a 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:31.559 theoretical computer. It was a computer that could perform any 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:36.520 operation or algorithm, set of directions, set of instructions that 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:42.160 the various other like individual theoretical touring machines could could perform. 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.599 So again, this is all just the realm of ideas. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.520 Right now, we'd start at a physical machine. Yet, Yes, 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:55.800 apparently um Touring believed that the universal touring machine. UM 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.040 he probably didn't call it that. I don't know, I 0:11:58.080 --> 0:11:59.920 didn't read that, but that's of course what we call it. 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:04.559 Um He believed that the universal machine would operate according 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.240 to a table of behavior, which people likened to a 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.280 computer program. So basically those were the parameters under which 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.840 it could perform different kinds of operations. But it's just 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.720 funny that he had his own language. It's funny to me, 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.360 but it makes all the you know, all the sense 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:22.240 in the world when you didn't already have a paradigm. 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.760 You know, we call them computer programs because everyone else does. 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.440 But he had his own language for this. But once 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.280 you've understand sort of what he's talking about, you kind 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.400 of go, oh, so that's what you think, right, So 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.680 a couple of years ago by he gets a PhD 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.840 in algebra and number theory, So no slouch there. Um, 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:45.840 and and then he starts, um, he starts working on 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:51.200 an interesting project for the British government. Um, so we're 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:56.400 talking about eight. There's there's an event going on in Europe. Yeah, 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.360 there's a small event going on in Europe. There's a 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:02.439 Germany is uh is becoming a bit of a problem. 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:05.760 There's um, a World War two is breaking out at 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.360 this point. I'm sorry, go ahead, no, as I as 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.000 I previously alluded to, the the German economy has been 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.080 very poor for a very long time for them, and 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:22.080 so gradually as Adolf Hitler convinced that he could turn 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.160 the country around where he given the opportunity to take 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:29.439 the reins and take power. Um, he basically convinced the 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:32.559 Germans that you know, he would be the leader that 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.520 would lead them to greatness. And in doing so they 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:39.840 militarized of course, and of course Hitler had another agenda 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.200 in mind as well. This was brought to you by 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.160 stuff you missed in history class. Yeah, but no, it's 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.840 but it's interesting to think about that that Touring was 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.120 involved in. He was interested in things like, you know, 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:56.000 economics and things and mathematics. And the Germans had developed 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:03.360 a very uh powerful mechanical code machine, yes, called the 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:08.600 Enigma machine. Yes, so the German Enigma code machine was 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:13.840 this device that allowed the Germans to encode um different commands. 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.280 The Luftwaffa in particular was using it as well as 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:22.680 the German Navy. Now, the luftwaff version was slightly simpler 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.200 than the NAVL version, yes, and didn't have all that 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:31.560 lent on it. Oh sorry wrong, Yeah, it was in 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:37.040 the air as opposed to underwater anyway, Um, touring began 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.680 to work on the Enigma codes and he developed a 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.840 device of his own U actually he developed along with 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.600 some other people. He worked with several other people on 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.960 this project, but together they developed a device called the 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.040 bomb b O M B e yes and this was 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:58.400 a decoding device, and the Luftaffa codes ended up being 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.240 the simplest to decode it. It It took more work to 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.960 decode the naval ones, which were mainly UH concerning the 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:10.440 U boats submersible vehicles, which was very important as far 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:14.680 as the war in the Atlantic was concerned. Without those UH, 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.000 without being able to decode those messages, the war may 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.360 have gone very differently, at least the naval part of 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:24.760 the war would have gone very differently. Um. So UH, 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.840 he starts to break these codes, it's actually having a 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.640 measurable effect on the war. It's saving countless lives on 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.120 the Allied side. Uh. He also, in nineteen forty two, 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.760 interestingly enough, proposed marriage yes to Joan Clark, and then 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.720 he retracted the proposal. She accepted, then he had to 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.080 retract it, and he explained to her. I think this 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:46.920 was one of those moments where it was probably another 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:52.640 defining moment where he told her that he was homosexual 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.040 and that he wouldn't that his therefore he couldn't really 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.560 marry her. And I think that was probably the moment 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.680 where I mean, this is this is guesswork, but it 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.680 seems like it's the moment where he decided that he 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:09.480 wasn't going to pretend to be something he wasn't, which 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:15.760 unfortunately would lead to tragedy further down the line. Um. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.200 So in in nineteen four, this is getting close to 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.640 the end of World War two, he actually first started 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:27.280 talking about building a brain, an electronic simulation of a brain, 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.680 and what it would take in order to achieve such 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.120 a thing, and this would sort of be an electronic 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:36.920 version of his Universal machine. Now, back when he was 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.480 thinking about the Universal machine, it would have been mostly 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.880 a mechanical device, non electronic device. It was only through 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:47.000 the developments of World War two, the techno technological developments 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.600 of World War two, that electronics started to become more 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:56.000 important than mechanical devices. So that's when he starts working 0:16:56.000 --> 0:17:00.800 in computer theory and and even computer software theory. Uh, again, 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.760 this is all theoretical, but he starts to work. In 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.440 forty seven, he starts working on the idea of programming 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:15.240 and neural nets. That's fascinating stuff. Yeah, talking about networks 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:20.480 essentially years before we would have computer networks of any size, right, 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.320 and he was he was even thinking about creating some 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:28.239 sort of mechanical network that would have some sort of 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.200 learning capability. Yes, so it's not just that it can 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.080 carry out instructions, but that it can learn from the 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.760 instructions you give it and build upon that. Yes, so 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.080 this is essentially artificial intelligence. This is really where he 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:47.080 starts to to become interested in the subject of artificial 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:49.879 intelligence and touring. You know, you could call him the 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:51.960 father of computer science. You could also call him the 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:56.719 father of artificial intelligence in a way. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Um. 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.600 One other fascinating thing about him in that era, right 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:06.200 and imediately post war um apparently part of his frustrations, 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.000 as part of a way to alleviate the frustration he 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.160 was feeling with getting his work done. Now, he wasn't 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.760 really recognized for his wartime work because so much of 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.720 it was top secret, so you know, it's a sort 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:21.320 of a way to deal with the stress of that. 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:27.320 He took up running and almost qualified for the h 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:33.080 British Olympic team as a marathon runner. And it's just 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:34.720 one of those things where I'd always heard about his 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.679 mathematical work and his work with computers. Mean really, you know, 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.480 he sustained an injury, which unfortunately prevented him from being 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.640 really considered for that team, but as pretty remarkable. I mean, 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:51.480 the guy was a phenomenal genius and potentially a world 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:56.399 class athlete. Yes, there are stories about Touring, uh having 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:01.919 fun by racing people cross the campuses of the various 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.560 universities he worked at while they took public transportation and 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.960 he would go on foot and beat them there. So 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.119 I mean there was he definitely had a little bit 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:16.040 of a playful side to him. Um So. In nineteen fifty, 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:21.040 Touring proposes something that plays a really important role in 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.800 artificial intelligence. It's called the Touring test. And this was 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.240 in a paper called Computing Machinery and Intelligence, which appeared 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:35.280 in the journal Mind in nineteen fifty. Yes, and uh, 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:40.800 this was this was a really interesting philosophical point. Touring 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:45.080 suggested that if you could build a machine that could 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:50.880 imitate a thinking, living creature, um so that it could 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.200 fool someone an interrogator, Uh, seventy percent of the time 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:57.200 that the integator was talking to a human and not 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.960 a machine. It would be said to pass the touring test, 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:01.800 that would said it would be said that this was 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:07.840 a machine that could at least simulate intelligence. And Uh 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.640 Hodges has a great section in his website that goes 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:19.240 into a discussion about Descartes. Uh and Descartes actually theorized 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.160 about something similar to this ages before Touring. Descartes said 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.919 that that if we could build a machine that could 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.919 imitate a living thing, we would still be able to 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:35.520 recognize it as a machine because it would lack understanding. Yes, 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:40.119 so even if we could teach a machine to talk, 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:42.960 it would just it would say words, but it wouldn't 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.479 be meaningful. It couldn't respond in a meaningful way, so 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.639 it could not be able to demonstrate any sort of 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.360 understanding of what it was talking about. Descartes was actually, 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.120 in a way, Descartes was really forward thinking in this 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.760 because he was essentially stating that the problem of teaching 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:06.399 a machine two comprehend and respond to stimuli is far 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:11.240 more complicated than anyone would imagine. And it turns out 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:14.000 that's true. It is really really hard to teach a 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:22.800 machine too two detect, interpret, and respond to stimuli beyond 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.760 a basic level, like you could teach a machine quote 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.000 unquote teach a machine to detect temperature and move away 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:33.440 from temperatures that are too hot. But two be able 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:39.760 to converse is a much different task, much much higher 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.560 level of thinking required in order to accomplish that task exactly. 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:48.080 And that's that maybe why Touring specifically chose conversation as 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.000 the task to test in the Touring test. It makes 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.840 Some people have objected to that, saying that conversation is 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.680 not really a test of intelligence, but Touring had various 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:01.360 responses to these objections. In his paper, He said that 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:04.359 this is a quote, I believe that in about fifty 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:06.960 years time, it will be possible to program computers with 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:10.160 a storage capacity about ten to the ninth power. Tend 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:11.480 to the ninth power of what I have no idea 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.200 because he didn't specify in this particular quote to make 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.359 them play the imitation game so well that an average 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.640 interrogator will not have more than seventy chance of making 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.560 the right identification after five minutes of questioning. So the 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.280 invitation game is kind of what I was alluding to earlier. 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:31.960 You have an interrogator who is asking questions of two subjects. 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.119 One of those two subjects is a computer, right, the 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.840 other is a human being, and the interrogator doesn't know which. Yeah, 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:41.280 it has no way of seeing like the interrogator. It 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.520 does not have a line of sight to the subjects. 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.840 The interrogators essentially asking questions, usually like through a terminal, 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.160 so you're typing the man and you're seeing the responses 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.680 on the screen. Um. And after five minutes of questioning, 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:58.320 if that interrogator is unable to determine which is the 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.440 human which is the computer, then that device may very 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:04.719 well pass the touring test. Now, when we say with chance, 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:10.240 that means that over multiple tests, UM, with multiple interrogators, 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:16.480 that that ends up being chance or better that um, 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.480 the interrogators unable to make that determination. That's when you 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:23.040 say you've kind of hit this artificial intelligence level as 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:26.640 defined by touring. UM. Now, some people would say that, well, 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.200 if you just designed a computer that had a deep 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:36.000 enough vocabulary and a basic set of rules that told 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:40.679 it how grammar works, so essentially a syntax telling it 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:45.359 how syntax works, UM, it could possibly fool people, but 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:50.119 doesn't mean that it's intelligent. Tourings responses, So what to 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.600 your From your perspective, it seems as if the machine 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:58.119 is intelligent, and isn't that all that matters? Right, because 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:01.440 you could argue, well, I can talk to the dumbest 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:03.240 person on the planet and they're gonna at least be 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:06.040 able to understand certain things I say, as opposed to 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:08.919 this machine that doesn't really understand it. Durings response to 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:11.639 that is, how do you know? The only way we 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:15.000 know that anything's intelligent is through our own experience. We 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:17.959 don't like, Chris is looking at me, and I'm talking 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:22.480 to Chris, but Chris doesn't know if I'm intelligent because 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:25.760 Chris only has his own experience. He knows that he's 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.080 intelligent in the sense that you know, he's able to 0:24:28.119 --> 0:24:31.639 think and process information. I appear to be able to 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:34.959 do that, But that could all just be an incredible simulation. 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:39.520 There's no way for you to know correct. Same thing 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:42.040 with the machines. Turing is like, Hey, we can't really 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:45.720 know that anyone else is intelligent, therefore it doesn't matter, 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:49.000 so the same thing should apply to machines. Shut up 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:53.200 at your face. I have long suspected that Jonathan Strickland 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:57.879 is in fact a machine. Yeah, I you know, I 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:00.359 let me put it this way. I want to be 0:25:00.400 --> 0:25:05.760 a replicant. I want to be a replican Okay, I 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:09.480 like that one. Okay, so this is nifty. When he 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:13.040 proposed the Turing test in nineteen fifty two, we we 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:16.919 reach a really unfortunate time during Touring's life. The British 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:21.560 government arrests him or for being a homosexual. This is 0:25:21.640 --> 0:25:27.280 again the the UK had very strict laws, conservative laws, UM, 0:25:27.440 --> 0:25:30.439 and he rather than going to prison, he elected to 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:36.359 undergo injections which would decrease his libido hormone injections. Yes, 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:39.320 so essentially this is it's chemical castration is what the 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:43.840 what's technically referred to as UM. He did that for 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:49.840 at least a year. UM. But part of that sentence 0:25:49.880 --> 0:25:52.640 also meant that he lost all of his clearance security 0:25:52.640 --> 0:25:58.440 clearance that he had as working for various UM projects 0:25:58.440 --> 0:26:02.480 and government uh well government projects as well as as 0:26:02.600 --> 0:26:05.440 his university once so he lost all of that. He 0:26:05.480 --> 0:26:08.960