Lecture 12.3: The Amazing Alan Turing - Richard Buckland (extension lecture) UNSW 2008

[uthman72]

This is just a good example of the poor education standards in America. If such are the teachers, may God have mercy of the students!

[uthman72]

This Lecturer does not seem to know the basic historical facts in Mathematics...It is depressing listening to this...."Alkjazori"? Oh dear! The correct name is Al-Khawarizmi (c. 780-850) , "Algorithm", who is known to every student of Maths. He is Persian and not Pakistani! Pakistan as a nation had not even been created yet (created recently in the 20th century)! Alan Turing who's known to every student of Computers and Maths was a scholar at University of Cambridge, UK!

[jrwkc]

@uthman72 god damn shut up uthman. He knows everything about computer science and mathematics. God forbid he forget a few trivial facts about some fucking dudes exact name or his lineage. I bet this lecturer can own you in all things math and science.

[frackcha]

@uthman72 I bet your a fun person to stand beside at a party... ;-)

[rfarrell1976]

Wow! Great lecture.

[SeedsofJoy]

I love this guy!

[DkDaNnyBol]

Giled = jailed in britain lol

[legendaryjonblue]

Bravo!  Fantastic performance and very insightful. A true teacher**

[barryh13]

Many historical errors. Can't even remember if Turing studied at Cambridge or Oxford. The "pakistani guy" who invented algorithms. And the Brits who needed boats for all their "beach heads". And Colin Grazier was an Aussie. This guy is on speed!!

[yn30s]

awesome lecture, the kind i might use to get friends who don't do math into stuff like this. BUT, i think you're wrong about the speed thing. the speed of a turing machine's computation can be multiplied by ANY constant factor, by appropriately increasing the number of symbols in the language, which must be finite, but therein can be arbitrarily large. so unless we have a computer that computes INSTANTANEOUSLY, we have a TM faster than all of them.

[harrymago91]

GREATTTTTTT!!! AMAZINGGG!!!

[imDivineLight]

That's what i call a "Teacher". Respect to you sir!

[apanapane]

I have respect for this teacher's utter and complete enthusiasm.

[forre65413]

@apanapane I do too like his enthusiasm, but why do a lecture on Alan Turing and talk about Enigma when you don't know things about them? There were quite a few errors in his historical knowledge.

[jowens81]

@Blunic so strange to see this critique. I would have been enthused beyond belief to ever have a professor who was able to show half as much passion about a lecture topic.

[ZombiePirate2]

I like this teacher. Good teaching style. Keep up the good work!

[xrockthe40ozx]

Turing's life was so terribly tragic. He understood the world in ways we could never comprehend.

[BenBen808]

Alan Turing was gay but he WASN’T a pedophile, and the ignorant UK government punished him for he sexual orientation. Yes he was a bit odd but who isn’t? it’s are right as human being to be different? it was his unorthodox methods that found solutions to unconventional problems. The fact still remain that we owe him a great deal.

[elearningart]

There is an annotated piece of text which indirectly slanders Oscar Wilde. Dont ever think that Oscar Wilde was a paedeophile.

Homosexuality for males was a prisonable offense in England, Wilde's imprisonment has nothing to do with children.

Please remove this annotation.

[Simonhaywardtamworth]

What a pile of crap ! Colin Grazier was from Tamworth ENGLAND & not Austrlia ! !

[sempreoderlibera]

Thank you for the great lecture! You have a new subscriber.

[jonolikesbuster]

Is Turing really the first one to discover that there are unanswerable questions? When did Godel first publish his incompleteness theorem? I believe it was sometime before Turing published his paper in the 1950's. Great lecture though.

[eatme690808]

@jonolikesbuster Godel's incompleteness theorems were first published in 1931. Slightly earlier than Godel--but unpublished until 1948--Alfred Tarski came up with similar results on decidability.

Turing's results were published in 1936 in his Entscheidungsproblem paper. Alonzo Church came up with an equivalent theory in the same year. So, no, Turing wasn't the first to answer No to Hilbert's challenge about decidability.

[ExpiredRamen]

Wish my prof was as interesting :(

[azeemigi]

Great lecture... 

[samdutton]

Beautiful - simple, clear and energetic. Wish I'd had lecturers like Richard Buckland!

[Shorty20122012]

I've never been at the edge of my seat listening to a lecture so interested in what was going to be said next. AMAZING professor and amazing info.

[joshispanic]

YOU ARE THE MAN H.G. (Hugo Gomez)

[faunflynn]

This stuff is so great.

KUDOS !

[girishwanjari666]

teri ma ka saki naka laude,\m/

[youngie2010]

The cheek!!! up the "true" tammies

[Beefy2203]

Engrossed in the lecture but I'd like to point out that Colin Grazier (who got the enigma machine out of the German U Boat) was from Tamworth, Staffordshire ENGLAND! Not Tamworth Australia!

[UNSWelearning]

@Beefy2203 yes absolutely, you are quite right - the new youtube layout makes it harder to see the description attached to the video but we did print a correction there saying exactly that when we uploaded the vid back in 2008. The actions of those three men were truly humbling.

[haynesis]

absolute genius lecturerer , thank you

[Entropy56]

So they locked up Turing for being homosexual? Shame of them. In the future we will look back with the same shame about how porn was not accepted as mainstream entertainment.

[ThunderAppeal]

I think in this video the instructor's knowledge and deeper understanding is starting to stand out.

[RichardM333]

Search for "Derek Jacobi - Breaking the code *Mathematics*" on YouTube for a brilliant scene of Turing (Jacobi) explaining his ideas to his math challenged boss.

[Filmmaker0098]

Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi was an Iranian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, a scholar. 

[Filmmaker0098]

Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi was an Iranian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, a scholar.

[earthorb]

Great lecture. Another unsung hero was Marian Rejewski who first cracked the Enigma code in 1932 with the Polish Cipher Bureau (having Germany and Russia as neighbours helped focus the mind). His team handed all their work to the British and French a few weeks before Poland was invaded.

[erikandchristine]

i wanna be in this class, lol what is it called? i dont even pay attention in my own lectures

[gamesbok]

Turing was at Manchester.

[rabbitwho]

This is a fascinating talk.

Neither Turing nor Wilde were pedophiles as is questioned/suggested by the video and the annotations respectively.

People shouldn't make such a big deal out of a student simply asking a question, what kind of a college wouldn't allow students to ask questions?

[Zangetshou]

this guy is cool

[turnmeonn]

fuck the americans, as they think they have invented the whole world.. but the reality is they are not. look at the guy appearing in the video, when he has to say the name of Al Harezmi, the person invented the algortihmic thinking, says "whatever his name is " in the way he does not respect..because he does not respect to history, an other nations. Everybody is white mans slave according to many of them..Fact that, there is not purely white man in the world at all..fucking freaks

[Riefer2001]

@turnmeonn lol, dude is definitely not American. Nice attempt at trolling, troll.

[raherecolston]

Glad to see Fasson and Grazier getting some credit. The german sub was the U559

[Beefy2203]

@raherecolston Like to add that Grazier was a Brit from Tamworth Staffordshire ENGLAND, not Tamworth Australia

[raherecolston]

@Beefy2203 .. yes mate. You're quite right;Tamworth in Staffs. Next time I go over that way,possibly next May, I'll try to find the statue

[MeBeMat]

No matter what comp science lecture at what university I watch - there's always "printf" written o the board somewhere.

I find it hard to believe that every single lecture has had a reference to that SPECIFIC function of C, lol

[rup54]

Lots of errors. Chaotic lecture.

[flyzeggs]

Khwarizmi was Persian and born in Central Asia, not Indian or Arab.

[UNSWelearning]

thanks flyzeggs

[miluette]

exactly THANKS!

[jennydisini]

thank you for posting this and mentioning that PM Gordon Brown apologised for how he was treated. :)

[ghandifeeder]

wow, yeah he's a great professor, you can't help but be interested cause of his approach on everything

[metalmaarten]

Ow man, love the way this guy tells story. Wish my prof talked like this

[senantiasa]

What's the name of your prof? I will tell him what you said!!!!

[edehin]

That question about pedophile is so insulting and the "teacher" making fun of it is irresponsible. He should have answered to such a homophobic remark seriously. That homosexuality=pedophiles is the most ignorant thing ever and from a college student? But the teacher takes his time to clear that he is not a homosexual... i love him in a serious way. WHAT A BUNCH OF IGNORANT HOMOPHOBES

[UNSWelearning]

@edehin,

I think you might have misinterpreted the question asked by the student. I doubt it would even cross the mind of the questioner, or indeed anyone else in the room, to equate homosexuality and pedeophilia!

As discussed in previous comments below most likely the student was trying to make sense of someone being jailed for being homosexual - these days that outcome seems utterly bizzare to university students in inner-city Sydney. Perhaps he was thinking of the case of Oscar Wilde?

[edehin]

Oscar Wilde wasn't incarcerated for paedophilia, he was incarcerated for loving a consenting adult man (younger than him, but Bosie was a complete adult). And the mere mention of paedophilia and homosexuality (when is faaaaar more common in heterosexuals) is insulting. It's clear the student wasn't trying to figure out if paedophilia is punished and homosexuality is not.

[edehin]

If he doesn't even now that to this day in the very same and "modern" Australia homosexuals cant marry he lives in an heterocentric patriarchal bubble. So it's not much justification for his homophobia. That's homophobia: ignorance that we must suffer and breed beacuse the heterosexuals don't take the time to respect and not insult us. If I ask in a class "wasn't the girl asking for his rape?" that's not forgivable. It's an agressive, insulting, misogynistic question.

[eanwahm]

Although Richard's teaching style is appreciated but its really discouraging that he didn't mention the correct name of a Muslim Scholar who invented the ALGORITHM and ALGEBRA. His name was Mohammed AL-KHWARIZMI.

[swale13]

Not being aware of the Polish role in cracking

the German code is unforgivable...goof

[betabenja]

Before you victimise england over homosexual criminality, please note that Australia would still have locked up Turing 7 years after it was legalised in England. And that is best case - Tasmania were 30 years behind England on decriminalisation.

[UNSWelearning]

Absolutely!

But that doesn't pardon the way he was treated.

[quasigoose]

Great lecture.But... It's sad that he didn't even mention that decryption of ENIGMA was mostly work of Polish mathematicians: Rejewski, Różycki and Zygalski. Commercial version of ENIGMA was deciphered in 1932. In January 1938, Polish Cipher Bureau's German was able to read nearly 75% of all mesages. In 1939 Poles gave their know-how to the Brits and French and started working with allies in decyphering new ENIGMA(meanwhile Nazi impreved machine).

[DrGeophysics]

He drops a few notes, but most of this is excellent. Thanks for the long post mate.

[Natasha26]

i don't like his waffly statements... if u r gonna do a lecture about smthing, at least do ur research d*mn it!!

[hunan131]

exactly, he's not sure about anything

[Natasha26]

am glad u said that, during my undergrad I had a lot of faker-teachers... very badly prepared... but i was too young to say STFU and give me a refund...

[ChristopherDone]

I love the fast talking. *Gobbles the information*

[carbonchain]

what the hell, "was turing a paedophile?" -random.

[mryellow123]

hmm pedo...... don't know where that came from...... I believe his lover was in his 20s, which was young in comparison, but not underage by any stretch. I may however have been considered in that light at the time.

[JeffDoogins]

Probably not contemplating why he'd be jailed for being gay, no understanding of the British law of the time

[mryellow123]

Few things about Turing....

First.... Don't watch "the enigma machine" movie, it's complete fantasy....

His analogue computer.and all schematics were destroyed after the war, which is kinda sad.

He was gay and after the war they used this fact and the laws at the time to keep him suppressed. At this stage he was pretty much an "ordinance" and it was considered very important to secure him.

This pressure leads to his eventual (likely) suicide.

A true hero.

[InkyEnston]

If any one wants a full but frank low-down on Turing, Babage and Flowers watch Jeremy Clarkson's inventions that changed the world episode 2 (the computer). Its actualy very good. i think its on youtube

[Entertainmentwf]

I really enjoyed this. It's a shame no mention of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem which directly inspired the Turing Machine since it is the theoretical 'machine' to make the Incompleteness Theorem make sense based on Hilbert's challenge that some systematic way of doing things.

[BBCcashville]

Nice lecture by a teacher who loves his work... but not knowning Al-khwarizmi is a mistake...

[Arodinme6]

The students seem kind of homophobic - where that pedophilia question came from is beyond me and I'm American!

[zero2twenty]

00:16? Pakestani?

Persian, you idiot! If you don't know history then stick with western short stories.

[unswelearning]

i'm very sorry to have upset you. the point i was inepty trying to make was computing has its roots outside of western culture. i was about to talk about a (brilliant) englishman and didn't want to give the impression that the history of computation was solely western. i strained to recall the modern location of persia (didn't it overlap pakistan?) i'm sorry as i know how annoying it is when others mistake the nationality of australians like eg ernest rutherford or sir edmund hillary.

[zero2twenty]

I am sorry but I find most Anglo saxons as arrogant and this is how they are brought up to attribute greatness with the western culture and ignore or belittle what greatness existed before them in other cultures. Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Indian, and the Chinese scholars had a great deal of interactions yet no one called it an eastern culture as they all were great individually. Without Kharazmi, mathematics would be far more primitive. Not to know him is a mistake.

[unswelearning]

thanks zero2twenty and i agree with you utterly about his brilliance and impact and that not to know him is a tragedy

[mryellow123]

Negative ratings eh, for stating the truth, sounds like youtube to me. Get off your high-horse people!

I'm a white westerner and I can safely say that we are very self-centric as general rule.... It's funny to watch sometimes.

[owarm94]

When a person reacts to a statement with hysterics, it makes them look oversensitive and irrational. The man is obviously trying to give some positive credit and made a slight error. The attack is unwarranted.

But yeah, the internetz is serious biznezz.

[KOGR11]

the tachikoma paradox.... !!!

[malignantfractal]

I believe the other name of the "halting problem" around 19 minutes in is the "Entscheidungsproblem". I wouldn't have been able to spit that out imprompu either.

Well done nonetheless

[somnolent49]

It's unfortunate that he's incorrect about so many of his historical facts, because he has natural exuberance, and it really is a fascinating story.

[arunkann]

he doesnt even know/remember his facts .. either he should do his research and present historical data accurately or if he doesnt know it just stick to the subject at hand!! why confuse the students with inaccurate name and stories?

[quantumG]

Yeah. I have to agree. As passionate as the guy is, how about doing some research.

[jorisewout]

He is not teaching history. So if his examples are not historically correct you just as well could see them as fiction. It does not really matter how you see them, they are just tools used when teaching something different. Although I have to say it would be even better if he had all the facts right (I do not know if he did/ did not).

[0121ryanh117]

Thats a good expression

[intindse]

this is the best teacher in the world

[JasonNightingale]

Now that's a teacher with heart for his jobs.

"I love him! in a ...." XD

[foralgerian]

Well that seems to be good but in this lecture it appears that he is talking more about the hacker than the genius who actually made the Enigma machine, not a single word about the designer.

Anyway history is written by the winners!

[oneellies]

It would have been better if he know more about the Al-Khwarizmi, but still his is an amazing lecture.

[djjiles]

What year level is this subject??? surely not first year?

[TechApplePie]

I could be off, but to your question, I think this is two first year 'higher computing' courses rolled into one. Yes its a bit more advanced as it it "higher" computing, but it should lead into the next year of advanced approaches.

[boxari1980]

Friggin' awesome lecture!

[McBinary]

Funny when he could not figure out the medieval methematicians race. He might as well have said "some darkie that invented algorithms". Tut tut deary me etc

[openingsound]

really great lecture, i should be studying for exams of my own but this grabbed me and i couldnt stop.

bummed out he didnt finish up talking about the turing test.

great prof, these humans are lucky

[thelastwords]

This is great..very interesting!

[devjock]

Excellent lecture.

Also, the part about Blade Runner? The Anime Ghost in The Shell would be a good second movie about robot sentience.

[bradyoung01]

Instructor is an dynamic speaker, but he doesn't know some of the most basic facts of the subject matter. If you don't know the facts, don't just bluff it and state guesses as if they are facts.

[alanzeino]

You haven't proven that you yourself know the subject matter, so forgive us if we low rank you.

[yrotstsohgallet]

WHAT THE FUCK? what's up with the guy at the end asking if turing was a pedophile?? typical bullshit: allegedly smart people holding ridiculous stereotypes as truth. a person being gay does not mean they are a pedophile, you piece of shit. christ, what a bassackwards motherfucker.

[comp1917]

oh no I think you have misinterpreted what he meant based on the way that I repeated his question - he asked with a screwed up face trying to pin down some memory of something previously learned. The question threw me considerably and I didn't deal with it well. I later wondered if he had been thinking of the similarly disgraceful and heatbreaking case of the treatment of Oscar Wilde.

[eedahl]

Ah, hi. I'm just replying here as I assume you might get it then. I found these lectures from searching Gödel, Escher, Bach, because the foreword in the 20yr celeb edition was a huge inspiration when I writing an assignment on AI, using Blade Runner as a base of discussion! Now in retrospect I find you're talking about the same stuff, and you're a very good teacher. So awesome, thanks a bunch, I'm watching it all from 0...n. I'm a Viking btw., and what you played was lapp music :-P 'tis be all.

[ziqueez]

That made my jaw drop to the floor too, though after reading comp1917's explanation I think there might be more to it. It might be that the question was distorted in this video by not actually seeing the asker, in addition to the question itself being badly formed. We compsci majors aren't exactly known for our social acumen =)

Great teacher by the way, I wish my lecturers were that enthusiastic.

[sircurtisseretse]

When one gives a lecture about Alan Turing, it is generally a good idea to look up at least the very basic facts about his life and work beforehand, just in order to add some substance and not to end up with a talk so superficial it could have been given by Jamie Oliver just as well. It is called preparation. I don't want to sound bitter, but if education moves in that direction I'm really scared.

[LoveMattersMost]

"Until about the second World War, most codes were CRAP!" heheh! -Good line! : )

[someonehithim]

Wonderful lecture, just ignore the ignorant kid in the front who tries to associate the important social commentary that Turing was effectively killed by the UK government for being gay with the bigoted and false idea that gay people are pedophiles. Though the comment is a good example for the need to diversify degree requirements a bit.

[sspoke]

lol turning into a philosophy class. Anyways that TM machine is better then most computers cuz transisters use only 1's and 0's in state and the TM machine uses any state value.. but we are getting close with atomic computers