Why did computer science make a hero out of Turing?

Maarten Bullynck (1) , Edgar G. Daylight (2) , Liesbeth de Mol (3)

1 Centre de recherches historiques : histoire des pouvoirs, savoirs et sociétés
2 Altreonic NV
3 STL - Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163

This paper analyses the celebration of Turing as one of the heroes of computer science. This is done by (1) a comparison with the way C.F. Gauss has been instrumentalized in mathematics and (2) a historical study of two historical moments that help understand Turing's current status in computer science.

Mots clés: History and philosophy of computing

Domaines: Ordinateur et société [cs.CY]; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Maarten Bullynck, Edgar G. Daylight, Liesbeth de Mol. Why did computer science make a hero out of Turing?. Communications of the ACM, 2015, 58 (3), pp.37-39. ⟨10.1145/2658985⟩. ⟨hal-01396456⟩