Skip to content

If one wants to make a machine mimic the behaviour of the human computer in some complex operation one has to ask him how it is done, and then translate the answer into the form of an instruction table. Constructing instruction tables is usually described as "programming."

— Alan Turing Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

Another quote →

More quotes by Alan Turing

We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.

Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.

Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past.

Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950)

Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.

Epigram to Robin Gandy (1954)

This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.

All Alan Turing quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alan Turing (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.