2012 (MMXII) is a leap year starting on Sunday, in the Gregorian calendar, and it is the current year in Oceania (to the West of the International Date Line), Asia, Eastern Africa and Eastern Europe. It is the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the 3rd of the 2010s decade.
2012-the International Year of Cooperatives and International Year of Sustainable Energy for all.
It is also Alan Turing Year, commemorating the mathematician, computer pioneer and code-breaker on the centennial of Turing birth.
The Turing machine has become the foundation of the modern theory of computation and computability.
Turing found in the concept of the Turing Machine something that would satisfy the fascination with the problem of Mind that his friend Christopher Morcom had sparked; his total originality lay in seeing the relevance of mathematical logic to a problem originally seen as one of physics.
By this, Turing made a bridge between the logical and the physical worlds, thought and action, which crossed conventional boundaries.
His work introduced a concept of immense practical significance: the idea of the Universal Turing machine.
In 1944, Alan Turing was almost uniquely in possession of three key ideas:
* his own 1936 concept of the universal machine;
* the potential speed and reliability of electronic technology;
* the inefficiency in designing different machines for different logical purposes.
The fourth idea was the universal machine should be able to acquire and exhibit the faculties of the human mind.
Turing was captivated by the potential of the computer he had conceived. In 1946, the Automatic Computing Engine, or ACE, was approved. Eight years later he died.
Let us celebrate Alan Turing Year with all our devotion to the computer world, friends!
Happy New 2012 Year!
Author
valpat21@hotmail.ca