On the 1st October 1997, a celebration of the life and works of Alan Turing was held at King's College.
After Dinner Speech
After dinner, Maurice Wilkes paid a humorous tribute to Turing with the following 19 minute speech.
Aspects Of Interest
Although the speech contains some positive remarks about Turing, it contains some notorious remarks as well.
He starts with "In some quarters, the impression has got around that Turing and I didn't get on together, but that is quite untrue ..."
Later, most famously, Wilkes remarks "Turing's work is of course a distinguished contribution to mathematics. There is the question of exactly how it is related to the world of computing. ... In order to able to design and build an electronic digital computer we must first explain and illustrate the working of the Turing Machine? ... There is no connection at all."
Finally Wilkes gives a view on Artificial Intelligence, referencing an article he published in response to Turing. The article allows Wilkes to call himself the first "professional" in the field of AI.
"Can Machines Think", MV Wilkes, Proceedings of the IRE October 1953, pp1230-1234 (notably followed in that edition with an article by Claude Shannon!). (Full text download for local users only: PDF)
Can decades of Computer Science teaching be wrong? Is "Automata theory a basis for Computer Science" or not?
Page updated by DJ Greaves, June 2024 with thanks to IA Pratt and RM Mortier.