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ALAN MATHISON TURING was born in 1912 in London, was schooled in mathematics, concieved of semial computer concepts, constructed some of the first real machines, broke codes for the allies during World War 2, and anticipated the field of artificial intelligence. He contributed powerful orignial ideas to the established fields mathematics, philosophy, psychology, chemistry, and physics, and to the fledgling field of computer science.
In 1939, in a paper called "On Computable Numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem", Turing introduced a formalism for studying computability which has come to be known as the Turing Machine. In 1950, in a paper called "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", he described a test for computer intellegence which is now called the Turing Test.