A profile of Alan Turing part 2: The father of the modern computer

Following the war Turing turned his attention to computer science - then in it's infancy.

However it was not the fist time Turing had made contributions to the field which would come to revolutionise life in the 20th century.

As early as 1936 Turing had developed a theory of a "universal computing machine" that would be able to solve any mathmatical problem which has an algorithm.

In 1948 he began work in the Mathmatics Department of Manchester University where he helped develop the ground breaking Manchester Mark I computer, one of the earliest ancestors of the modern computer.

Turing also wrote a paper in which he discussed the idea of artificial intelligence. In the paper he developed what has become known as the "Turin Test" for artificial intelligence.

Under the test a computer and a human are questioned by a second human who cannot see them.

If the computer is able to convince the second humman that it is in fact a person then it will have shown itself to have independent intelligence.

In the late forties and early fifties Turing worked on developing an early chess computer programme, although at the time no computer powerful enough to run it existed.

His fruitful and promising scientific career came to an abrupt end however, when in 1952 he was convicted of gross indecency after he admitted to having a sexual relationship with another man.