Turing’s Genius – Defining an apt microcosm

Abstract

Turing (1912-1954) is widely acknowledged as a genius. As well as codebreaking during World War II and taking a pioneering role in computer hardware design and software after the War, he also wrote three important foundational papers in the fields of theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, and mathematical biology. He has been called the father of computer science, but he also admired by mathematicians, philosophers, and perhaps more surprisingly biologists, for his wide-ranging ideas. His influence stretches from scientific to cultural and even political impact. For all these reasons, he was a true polymath. This paper considers the genius of Turing from various angles, both scientific and artistic. The four authors provide position statements on how Turing has influenced and inspired their work, together with short biographies, as a starting point for a panel session and visual music performance.

New Media Art as a Vehicle for Research and Innovation

“…emergent order that Stuart Kauffman believes underlies much of the order seen in organisms today (Kauffman 1995). At this point, I'm turning again to Turing and comments made by Jeremy Green when we shared a platform, together with Andy Lomas, digital artist and mathematician, and Jonathan Bowen, computer scientist at an EVA presentation celebrating the genius of Alan Turing (Bowen et al 2018). Each of us, in our different ways, owe a huge debt to Turing; without him we could not do what we do.…”

“…The programme seemed to squirm away from where I wanted to go ...But it is precisely the limitations on what a model can do that gives it value; if you cannot match your model to the data, one of them must be wrong and you have something to learn. The process of bridging that gap provides the value and the excitement of new discovery (Bowen et al 2018).…”

Digitality: A reality check

“…The EVA London conference series itself has been radically affected compared to its physical past (Bowen 2020), with EVA London 2020 and its associated meetings held completely online via Zoom Webinar (see Figures 5 and 6). Alan Turing has continued to be an inspiration for digital culture long after his death (Bowen 2016;Bowen et al 2018;Giannini & Bowen 2017). There are similarities in his influence with that of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the much earlier Italian Renaissance polymath (Giannini & Bowen 2020a;2020b).…”

The Digital Renaissance from da Vinci to Turing

“…This paper has taken inspiration from a recent book [21] and previous EVA London conference [47] papers [5], [10]- [13], [18]- [20]. The paper has an associated sister paper [22] in EVA London 2020 [48].…”