Turing, Alan

"We do not need to programme it to learn chess; it can learn chess by playing chess against itself."

"Amongst the learned, I would say that one should ignore public opinion."

"The definition of machine I have been giving all along has been purely mechanical."

"It can be shown that a single instruction table can be made which will imitate the behaviour of any machine."

"With computing machines we have something new in the world to think with."

"The machine should be so programmed that it can distinguish sense from nonsense."

"The extent to which we regard something as behaving in an intelligent manner is determined as much by our own state of mind and training as by the properties of the object we are studying."

"A machine can mimic intellectual processes without possessing consciousness."

"The imitation game is not the right test for machine intelligence if consciousness is required."

"We may compare a man in the process of computing a real number to a machine which is only capable of a finite number of conditions."

"The degree of accuracy which is obtainable is primarily a question of the cost."

"The idea of using the computer as a research tool was considered very unlikely at that time."

"There is a specific disability which prevents a vast number of girls from being good mathematicians."

"The practical usefulness of the machine will depend on its speed, efficiency and the ease with which it may be instructed."

"Intelligence in machinery is not a consequence of the machine's physical construction alone."

"We can imagine a machine of this type which has a random element built in it."

"The argument from design has never seemed very compelling to me."

"The idea that the mind is mechanical in nature is as old as Descartes."

"I would say that a very large proportion of the effort of an intelligent being goes into the process of learning."

"The real problem is how to programme the machine to discover things of scientific interest."

"Opinions about the origin of consciousness vary widely."

"The universal computing machine is capable of computing any sequence that can be computed."

"It is tempting to suppose that this process has to be completed before the machine has finished its work."

"A new and powerful technique of mathematical reasoning is now available."

"Computing machines of our time have a number of limitations which are not fundamental in principle."

"The practical and the purely academic problems cannot always be cleanly separated."

"It is possible to build machines which will draw beautiful patterns."

"The mechanical brain does not secrete thought as the liver secretes bile."

"We have to satisfy ourselves that the machine can do what we want it to do before we need think about its intelligence."

"Our machines are capable of more variety in their possible behaviour than would at first appear."