We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields. But which are the best ones to start with? Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English.
Alan TuringA very large part of space-time must be investigated, if reliable results are to be obtained.
Alan TuringSometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.
Alan TuringThe original question, 'Can machines think?' I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.
Alan TuringI believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.
Alan TuringIn attempting to construct such (artificially intelligent) machines we should not be irreverently usurping His (God's) power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children,โ Turing had advised. โRather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates.
Alan Turing