Introduction to the Parafinite (Level of the Parafinite: Level 2)

Abstract

In 1939, Alan Turing attended a seminar in Cambridge, England, given by Ludwig Wittgenstein, on the foundations of mathematics. Alan Turing contributed, in significant ways, to our modern notion of an algorithm, the idea that launched untold thousands of computer programs. He also did pioneering work with early computers; devised the idea of an in-principle computer now known as the “Turing machine”; is responsible for the “Turing test,” a thought experiment used to think about the potential for machine intelligence; and is co-named in the “Church-Turing Thesis,” which is a specific proposal for how the notion of algorithm can be related to basic mathematical formalism. Ludwig Wittgenstein was in his day, and continues to be held to be, one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century.