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Born
He's born to Julius and Ethyl Turing. -
Graduated from Cambridge with Honors
He got a degree in mathematics -
Started on the Entsceidungsproblem
After attending a lecture on Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, he decided to set off and see if he could solve the halting problem. -
Designed the Universal Turing Machine
He published "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem," and described a stateful machine with an infinite ticker tape. He goes on to design a machine that can take in the "instructions" for another such machine as input allowing multiple algorithms to be run on the same machine. Later named the Turing Machine, this would become the basis of computing and give a formal definition for an algorithm. -
Got a PhD from Princeton
It was in mathematics with an emphasis on cryptography -
Publishes paper on Oracle Machines
This is a very fancy Turing Machine with a magical box that can consult an "oracle" that can answer any problem. He detailed this machine in his paper "Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals" which he wrote under Alonso Church, a simultaneous solver of the Entscheidungsproblem who took Turing under his wing. -
Creates the Bombe Machine
He was enlisted by the government to build the Bombe machine, a machine that could decode messages encoded by the German Enigma machine that exploited the Enigma's inability to encode a character to itself. -
Gained Interest in Speech Encryption
In exchange for telling the government everything he knows about the Enigma machine, Turing is allowed to visit NCML and look at their speech encryption system to allow overseas communication between the US and Britain. Turing was not impressed. He criticized the government for relying too much on their bulky machines and not being innovative. He soon starts working in the field at Bell Laboratories. -
The Colossus is Built
The colossus is a programmable computer envisioned by Turing in 1939 that was finally built in 1944. This is the precursor to modern programmable computers. -
Designs an Automatic Computer
Here he designs an Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) which was a computer that was able to store memory electronically without a need for physical storage. It was only built 7 years later as the resources necessary weren't at Turing's desposal. -
ENIAC Created
Not actually Turing's work, but this is the first programmable computer that was Turing complete. -
Invented LU Decomposition
This is a method for solving matrices. I'm not great with linear algebra, so everything I could read about this went way over my head. It looks like it uses fractals to solve the determinant? I'm sorry, I wish I could put a full thing here that explains how cool it is, but I don't understand it at all. -
Designs Turochamp
He programs a fully functional chess program! This would be impressive on its own, but he manages to do this way before there was a computer able to run it! He tests his own code by actually reading the code and simulating the computer's moves. -
Begins Interest in Artificial Intellegence
He devises the Turing Test in his paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" which confronts that if a computer can do math like a person, there's no reason it shouldn't be able to do anything else a human can too. The Turing Test states that if a person can't tell the difference between a person and a machine, the machine is sufficiently "intelligent." -
Opens the Field of Program Verification
He writes the paper "Checking a Large Routine." This determines that verification is not Turing recognizable. A machine cannot verify its own program. -
Begins Work in Mathematical Biology
He publishes one appointment where he devises the Turing Pattern, but his research is cut short because he's arrested for Gross Indecency (read: homosexuality) and loses all clearance. He's offered hormone treatment rather than imprisonment which he takes, but the treatment has a very negative impact on him. -
Died
He died of cyanide poisoning. It's unknown if this was suicide.