Chris Webb

I have alluded to this a few times here on the blog, and with Charles talking about it and Amazon.com posting the product page I suppose I should post about it as well. I have the extreme honor of working with programming legend Charles Petzold on his next book, The Annotated Turing.

The cover is not final, and I welcome your feedback. The book is nearing completion, and is on track for publication in May 2008. There is no real product information on Amazon.com yet, so here’s a blurb describing the book:

Anyone who has explored the history, technology, or theory of computers has likely encountered the concept of the Turing Machine. The Turing Machine is an imaginary — not even quite hypothetical — computer invented in 1936 by English mathematician Alan Turing (1912 – 1954) to help solve a question in mathematical logic. As a byproduct, Turing also founded the field of computability theory — the study of the abilities and limitations of digital computers.

Although the concept of the Turing Machine is well known, Turing’s original 1936 paper is only rarely read. This neglect may have something to do with the paper’s title — “On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem” — and perhaps the paper’s extensive use of a scary German gothic font. That’s too bad, because the paper is not only a fascinating read but a milestone in the history of computing and 20^th century intellectual thought in general.

This book presents Turing’s original 36-page paper and a follow-up 3-page correction with background chapters and extensive annotations. Mathematical papers like Turing’s are often terse and cryptic. Petzold has elaborated on many of Turing’s statements, clarified his discussions, and provided numerous examples.

Interwoven into the narrative are the highlights of Turing’s own life: his secret work in cryptanalysis during World War II, his involvement in seminal computer projects, his speculations about artificial intelligence, his arrest and prosecution for the crime of “gross indecency,” and his early death by apparent suicide at the age of 41.