Turing Machines - How Computer Science Was Created By Accident

Comments · 934

• WN

  @wnh79 · 6 years ago

  I always feel the sads thinking about how much Turing contributed to humanity and how little humanity gave him in return

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• PE

  @peterpike · 6 years ago

  I tried to stay in Hilbert's Hotel, but they kept changing my room.

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• AL

  @altrag · 6 years ago

  Couple of fun facts:<br>- Lambda calculus is still used a <i>lot.</i> &nbsp;In fact, its the basis of many modern programming languages. &nbsp;Lambda calculus is more symbolic and tends to be easier for humans to deal with, while Turing machines are well... machines, and easier to implement as hardware. &nbsp;So the equivalence between the two means we can build compilers to translate from (relatively) human-readable languages based on lambda calculus to the list of 1s and 0s that make up Turing&apos;s model of computation.<br><br>- &nbsp;Quantum computers are <i>not</i> more powerful than Turing machines. &nbsp;They can perform certain classes of computations in polynomial time that a classic computer requires exponential time for, but in terms of decideability (which is what math-y types are usually talking about when they say &quot;powerful,&quot;) they are exactly equivalent. &nbsp;That&apos;s why its possible to build simulators for quantum computers that run on a non-quantum computer. &nbsp;They just can take a really long time to run (depending on what operations you asked your your &quot;quantum&quot; computer to perform.)<br><br>Of course, quantum computing is still extremely new and its possible someone will invent a (computationally useful) quantum gate that absolutely cannot be simulated on a classic computer no matter how much time you give it. &nbsp;So quantum computing still has the possibility of becoming more powerful than a Turing machine, but under our current formulations it is not.

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• CO

  @cometmace · 6 years ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLVCscCY4xI&amp;t=678">11:18</a> &quot;Turing realized that internal state tables could be encoded as 1s and 0s...&quot; &nbsp;That could use some additional exposition.

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• VA

  @vaibhavjadhav1702 · 4 years ago

  Professor Alan Turing will be remembered forever for his contribution♥️✨

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• WI

  @williamivey5296 · 6 years ago

  For the record, the human &quot;computers&quot; did not just perform rote calculations, they often had math degrees, or at least a talent for math, and part of their job was developing efficient algorithms to produce quick and accurate computations based on the requirements and formulas presented to them by engineers and scientists. (These algorithms they developed are why many of them could compute trajectories or orbits in near real time.) Many of the procedures and tricks they developed formed the basis of computer software in later years. (A lot of &quot;computers&quot; ended up programming computers.) &quot;Rise of the Rocket Girls&quot; by Nathalia Holt is a fun read on the computer team at JPL in the 40s to 60s for anyone interested in the subject.

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• FE

  @feuerschlange6374 · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLVCscCY4xI&amp;t=370">6:10</a> &quot;This was back in the thirties&quot;, i can see a misunderstaning 25 years from now

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• PE

  @pedrolanevert570 · 6 years ago

  You really do have a skills for teaching. This is by far the best introduction to Turing Machine explanation I have ever seen. I can see you work hard to deliver quality content. Great Job !!

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• DU

  @dudeabideth4428 · 5 years ago

  Computer science is &nbsp;about computers as much as astronomy is about telescopes.

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• FO

  @follower_of_Jchrist · 3 years ago (edited)

  Mathematicians gave birth to entire computer science. (Alan turning, Ada Lovelace, charles baggage, &nbsp;John von Neumann and many more )

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• EQ

  @equesdeventusoccasus · 6 years ago (edited)

  Excellent video as always. I always kinda felt that my college could have spent more time on computer history. <br>Oddly enough, when I was going for my degree in Computer Science, Turing barely got a mention, whereas Lovelace and Babbage were covered in great detail. Lady Lovelace was brilliant as she was writing code for a computer that didn&apos;t even exist yet. What&apos;s more, it was proven that her code worked.

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• TH

  @thebaccathatchews · 6 years ago (edited)

  Ain&apos;t no party <br>Like an Up &amp; Atom party<br>&apos;Cause an Up &amp; Atom party <br>Explores the Universe

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