Alan Turing was one of the most important and influential thinkers of the 20th century. This volume makes his key writings available to a non-specialist readership for the first time. They make fascinating reading both in their own right and for their historic significance: contemporary computational theory, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence life all spring from this ground-breaking work.

Presupposing no familiarity with the technical concepts of either philosophy or computing, this clear introduction reviews the progress made in AI since the inception of the field in 1956. Copeland goes on to analyze what those working in AI must achieve before they can claim to have built a thinking machine and appraises their prospects of succeeding.

There are clear introductions to connectionism and to the language of thought hypothesis which weave together material from philosophy, artificial intelligence and neuroscience. John Searle's attacks on AI and cognitive science are...