Mathematician and logician Alan Turing came up with many of the basic concepts of computer science and artificial intelligence. His work as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park helped the right side win in World War II. He helped to develop devices that automated important steps of cracking the German Enigma cyphers. These devices had many of the features of computers. After the war, he collaborated on the design of an early electronic stored program computer. He devised the Turing test, as a way to prove that an entity was intelligent. During the 1950s, he fell afoul of laws against homosexuality and committed suicide after being treated shamefully. The government of the UK has finally seen fit to pardon him. About time.
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