A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.
Meaning
Turing compared a human following exact rules to a computing machine, linking human calculation with mechanical computation. Structure can multiply ability. Try giving yourself a simple written routine for a repetitive task, and see how reliably it runs.
Source: Intelligent Machinery (1948)
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About the author
Alan Turing was an English mathematician and pioneer of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, best known for the Turing machine concept and for his wartime codebreaking.
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