TheDiscoveryoftheComputer.doc.docVIP

The Discovery of the Computer Summary David Hilbert posed a fundamental question, as to whether it is possible to decide if any given theorem expressed in a logical system is true or false, without producing all the possible theorems of the system. This so-called “decision problem” was answered by Alan Turing, who showed that it is not possible to decide if any theorem is true or false. In doing this, he discovered the computer. The story starts with Leibnitz whose dream was to establish a formal system of logic which could be used to solve debates such as found in courts of law. He developed a set of symbols and procedures which were the first step to his dream. These are remarkably similar to the logic developed by George Boole (who we know well from Boolean variables in our computer programs, and the logic gates, AND, OR, etc). Much later Claude Shannon established a correspondence between Boole’s logic and electrical switching circuits, which means that electronic circuits can be used to solve problems in logic mechanically ie without human thought. These circuits form the basis of all electronics present in our contemporary computers. Following Leibnitz, Frege established a stronger formal system of logic which led to Hilbert posing his fundamental question. In consideration of Hilbert’s problem, Alan Turing developed an abstract machine designed to answer Hilbert’s question. This “Turing Machine” captures the essence of our contemporary computer, which comprises a processor driven by a program. Yet Turing also went beyond this and showed that there is no difference between program and data; both are numbers. This was inspired by Kurt Godel, who showed how the symbols used in logic could be represented as numbers. Processing of these symbols could be reduced to arithmetical operation on the associated numbers. In later sessions, we shall show how this representation shows how an abstract Turing Machine is equivalent to a “register” based architecture such as th