Turing, Alan

"Definite instructions must be given in quite unambiguous form."

"Various undesirable consequences would follow if machines could think."

"A very wide range of behaviour is possible for the universal machine."

"The use of the word 'machine' in philosophical contexts is notoriously difficult."

"I am not very impressed by theological arguments for the existence of God, though I am impressed by some of the things mathematicians and physicists have discovered."

"The whole of this field of Artificial Intelligence is one where the results are uncertain."

"If each man according to each woman according to each thing has a certain value or utility..."

"I believe that in about fifty years' time it will be possible to programme computers to make them play a very good game of chess."

"We want a machine that can learn from experience, that can be modified by its experience."

"The term 'machine' may be used in two senses: a 'discrete state machine' or a 'continuous machine'."

"It is probably wise to include the unknown among the factors to be considered."

"Behaviour which appears to be anticipatory is really a product of the environment and the original contents of the machine's memory."

"A person supplied with paper and pencil and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal computing machine."

"The question of whether computers can think is no more interesting than the question of whether submarines can swim."

"Turing machines have the property that they can compute any computable function."

"It might be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English."

"The practical problem is how rapidly the machine can be expected to acquire knowledge on such topics."

"We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the apparent failure of psychological tests of machine intelligence."

"Even if we could build a machine that could think, that would not settle philosophical questions about consciousness."

"The machine should be programmed so as to do well in all situations that a human would do well in."

"Mathematical training strengthens the ability to think clearly."

"Isolated pockets of mental effort would not be particularly useful."

"We have only to suppose the tape of the Turing machine to be infinite in both directions."

"The degree to which a machine can simulate human thought is limited primarily by the breadth of the machine's programming."

"Punishment and reward is a system for moulding the character of the machine."

"It is not difficult to write down a set of rules so that a machine guided by the rules moves in an approximately human way."

"There is at least a possibility that the digital computer may be constructed in such a manner that it could be used as a model of the brain."

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."

"The popular view that scientists ever seek to slur over fundamentals with a proposal to comprise seems to miss the point."

"Instead of trying to produce a programme to simulate the adult mind, why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child's?"