In this blog post, we will look at the principles and concepts of the Turing machine proposed by Alan Turing, the father of computers, and its impact on the development of computers today.
Computers are unique inventions with unlimited possibilities. They have the versatility to accelerate and expand human thought processes. Computers play an important role in the development of modern civilization, searching for information on the Internet, connecting friends, sending money to bank accounts, predicting chemical reactions, and calculating the formation of galaxies. Nowadays, they are even found in mobile phones and cars, making our world more convenient in many ways.
The person who proposed the fundamental design of such a general-purpose computer was British mathematician Alan Turing. Known as the father of the computer, Turing is remembered as an important figure in the history of computers for his achievements. The Association for Computing Machinery honors him by naming an annual award for significant contributions to the field of computing after him. It is also well known that the logo of Apple, the American company famous for its smartphone revolution, symbolizes the poisoned apple that Turing bit into.
The Turing machine played a key role in the invention of the computer. Understanding the Turing machine allows us to understand how computers, which are now widespread throughout society, began. Now, let’s take a closer look at what the Turing machine is, how it works, and how it contributed to the development of computers.
The Turing machine proposed by Turing is an abstract machine with no physical form. The Turing machine is a concept proposed by Alan Turing in the process of proving Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, which states that “not all mathematical statements can be proven true or false by a machine.” In order to define what a mechanical method is, he designed a computational model consisting of simple components and operating principles.
The Turing machine consists of a tape of infinite length, a read/write device, and a set of operating rules. The operation of the Turing machine is simple. First, the read/write device reads the character currently pointed to on the tape. Then, according to the operating rules, the read/write device moves one space to the left or right, and a new character can be written over the tape. For example, if the reading and writing device is currently pointing to the letter A, it reads A according to the operating rules, moves one space to the right, erases the letter written there, and writes the letter B.
The importance of the Turing machine lies in the fact that it can imitate all other calculators with such simple components and operations. Turing proved that, given enough time, any type of calculation can be performed by a machine that imitates the Turing machine. The Turing machine was the first universal computing model. Thanks to this, computers were theoretically guaranteed to be capable of performing all kinds of calculations. Furthermore, the Turing conjecture that the Turing machine is the only universal computing model has not yet been disproved. All computing models that have appeared to date can be reduced to Turing machines. If a mechanical computing model that cannot be imitated by a Turing machine can be designed, it may be possible to create a new type of computer.
The Turing machine differs from earlier primitive computers in that it can perform any form of logical calculation. Earlier primitive computers could only perform a few predetermined calculations, such as arithmetic operations and solving differential equations. In contrast, the Turing machine has the property of being able to imitate all other Turing machines, enabling it to perform any complex operation desired by humans.
So far, we have learned what the Turing machine is, how it works, and its significance in computer theory. The Turing machine, which was an abstract machine, was implemented as an actual machine by another genius mathematician, von Neumann, and became the beginning of electronic computers that are changing the world today. Since then, computers have become increasingly faster and more complex, but the theoretical foundation has always been the Turing machine. Turing’s idea, which was proposed to prove Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, was developed and eventually became the driving force behind the information revolution.
