Honoring Alan Turing
June 7th marks the 58th anniversary of Alan Turing’s tragic suicide. His life was short, but his legacy lives on. Here are some quotes about Alan Turing from people we interviewed for CODEBREAKER:
“The things that he contributed to computer science weren’t the things that just happened to be true in one particular year or one particular decade, they were the things that are fundamentally true so they are always going to be with us in the same way as things that Galileo and Newton contributed to physics are always going to be with us.” — Dr. Alma Whitten – Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering at Google
- “We lost one of our great computer scientists, one of our great mathematicians, and I think British science would have advanced faster and would have been different in many ways, more creative in some ways, if Turing had lived.” — Emeritus Professor Ian Stewart, University of Warwick
- “Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, the greatest scientists in history. To me though, he (Turing) is number one, he’s on the top. There’s no question in my mind.” — Professor Kevin Warwick, University of Reading
- “I think all we can say is that it is a terrible tragedy that such a great and brilliant man should have had to suffer so much. And that his life should have ended in such a tragic way.” — Professor David Leavitt, Author of “The Man Who Knew Too Much”
Anthony James KNEIPP
I am forwarding you a copy of an email I sent to press@google.com three quarters of an hour ago. I thought you might be interested. Thank you, SBS.
Tony Kneipp
Brisbane
June 23 2012
******
I just wanted to say thank you Google. I was thrilled to go to Google a few minutes ago and see your animation of a Turing machine. I just sat and watched it for a few minutes and thought about it. I knew about Bletchley Park and the Enigma Machine, but I never knew anything about Alan Turing’s life until saw a documentary on SBS which was aired on June 7th, which was apparently the 58th anniversary of his tragic suicide. I was stunned by the brilliance of his mind, and deeply shocked by the barbaric and ruthless way he was treated. I immediately started work on the essay below as a tribute to him, and stuck at it in bursts through the night and through the following day until I felt I had the job done. My aim is to amuse and entertain, but also to show that we can look at old problems from new perspectives.I hope you enjoy it.
Tony Kneipp
31/10 Danby Lane
Nundah
Brisbane
QLD 4012
0431 857 363
******
A brief outline and a mathematical model of A QUANTUM FIELD THEORY and from that, a theory concerning A UNIVERSAL QUANTUM TIME FIELD.
Let’s consider a function f(x) where x tends to zero from above. From that let’s consider the number that is just infinitesimally greater than zero. We will call this number “zero plus”. In the same way, let’s now consider a number that is just less than zero. We will call this number “zero minus”. Now let’s consider a classic three dimensional frame of axes x,y,z. Now let’s take a look at the plane formed by any two of the axes. Next we will extend this plane into three dimensions by giving it a thickness of “zero minus” to “zero plus”.We will call this infinitisimally thin slice or zone the MEMBRANE. From there we progress to three mutually perpendicular membranes in keeping with the x,y,z axes.
We now have eight sectors or octants which are adjacent, but never touching, entirely separate, but not independent, contained as they all are within the frame of the x,y,z axes. The membranes are to be considered as “impermeable”, in other words, lines and co-ordinates end on reaching the membrane, and do not pass through to the adjacent octant.
We are now going ballistic. Consider a ball within one of the octants. What kind of a ball is this? Perhaps it’s a tennis ball, perhaps it’s a molecule of gas, or even a sun. Our ball is in motion. What kind of motion is of no real concern, other than it is to be viewed as motion in a “classical”, Newtonian sense.
Let us now consider that we have a CLOCK. This clock exists outside any of the octants, and outside the frame of the x,y,z axes. How this can be need not concern us here, all that matters is that we can conceive of such a clock. For simplicity, let’s say that the clock is in another room, or if you like, we can even say that the clock has left the building. This clock emits “pulses” of time. The pulse need not be of uniform duration. It is sufficient that they exist. And indeed “duration” is not really a suitable description.
The “pulses” are more accurately to be seen as quantum steps in time. The step has no duration. What we have instead is INTERVALS BETWEEN QUANTUM STEPS IN TIME. We can look at this as a time line along which at specific points these quantum time events occur. So we are now looking at two distinct aspects of time. Did we ever really imagine that time was just a running tap?
This time line with quantum time events at particular points along the line is not derived from any particular consideration of nature, of other theories, or anything else for that matter. It is an axiomatic part of my theory and model. I do not believe in self-evident truths – the earth is not flat after all. I also accept that this axiom will be controversial, but it’s my model, and I’ll play with it any way I like. It is is true because I say it is true, and we move on from there and see where we arrive.
These quantum time events directly regulate and transform events within each of the octants. Yet again, this is axiomatic. At the stroke of a “pulse” or quantum time event, all co-ordinates within each of the octants are simultaneously and instantaneously “mapped” to one of the other octants. The nature and form of the transformation need not concern us unduly here, the important thing is that we have a consistent and continuous transformation of the co-ordinates from one octant to another. There is no requirement that the transformation be consistent from one quantum time event to the next, only that the transformation is consistent and continuous for all octants within the one quantum time event.
Now let’s return to our ball. The clock has struck. Our ball is now in another octant. Is its motion the same as it was in the octant it left? Not necessarily. For example its velocity may be greater or less than it was. All that matters is that all other events within all octants are transformed in precisely the same way.
This then forms the basis for what is best described as a QUANTUM FIELD THEORY. This bears no relation to existing quantum field theories, which were developed to address a quite different and specific problem in physics. As I have indicated before, we are looking at Newtonian motion within the octants, and not the relativistic effects that come from travelling at close to C.
In this model we have a spatial frame of reference, which exists within what we could describe as a TIME FIELD. What does this model tell us about our understanding of space-time? By adding a fourth dimension, we can take our x,y,z frame of reference one step further to a space-time frame of reference. So now we have a space-time frame of reference within a time field. We have SPACE-TIME WITHIN TIME.
Some will dismiss that last sentence as mysticism. Others will say that it is simply gobbledygook. But it need mean no more than that one clock is regulating another, though clearly there are further implications to it as well.
So now I will make this bold assertion:
IT IS OUR QUANTUM TIME FIELD THAT IS UNIVERSAL AND UBIQUITOUS, AND ALL OTHER SPACE-TIME EVENTS EXIST WITHIN IT.
TIME EXISTS EVERYWHEN. SPACE EXISTS ONLY WITHIN TIME.
Does the clock select the transformation randomly? That would upset Albert, wouldn’t it? But perhaps he was right, and it’s no dice. Instead the clock is running an enormous tapeloop of punch tape. We would need a world famous cryptographer to decipher such a code.
Big bangs just come and go. There’s been a billion of them. They should correctly be seen not as the beginning of the universe, but as local events of finite duration. There’s probably one happening right now – so far away from us that we’ll never know, or off in another octant.
A theory should not be judged according to its elegance, nor according to its concordance with existing established theories. In the end, it stands or falls entirely on its usefulness. How long is a piece of string? And just how much longer are we going to be strung along by a theory with such a very low batting average.
In no way have I set out to describe physical reality here. What I have set out to do is to construct a mathematical model that incorporates the parameters and properties that might shed some light on quantum fields and time, and potentially lead to further models that may have some practical application in physics. So there you have it – my quantum field theory and my theory of a universal quantum time field. Make of it what you will.
I dedicate this brief essay to the memory of Alan Turing.
Anthony James Kneipp B.A.
Brisbane 09/06/2012
This article is entirely one hundred per cent my own work. I will leave it for others to judge whether it is a half-way decent piece of theoretical physics, or just an interesting science fiction story. Either way, I am quite pleased with it.
Tony Kneipp 17/06/2012
Jun 22, 2012 @ 11:17 am
ALLAN BREBNER
NICE TO SE THIS GREAT MAN GETTING SOME OF THE REWARD HE TRULY DESERVES HOPE THE EXIBITION GETS MANY MANY VISITORS. MANY WILL BE AMAZED BY HIS GENIUS YES THAT IS SO BUT I THINK OF ALAN TURING AS NOT ONLY A HERO BUT THE MAN WHO READ ROMMELS ORDERS AND THE ORDERS FROM THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND HE GAVE THIS INFORMATION TO OUR SIDE TO DEFEAT THE NAZIS AND KEEP THE WORLD FREE, A NOBLE AND CHRISTIAN PURPOSE YES WE SHOULD HONOUR HONOUR HIM AND THE OTHERS WHO SAVED ME AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO LIVE IN FREEDOM TODAY.
GOD BLESS ALAN TURING THANK GOD YOU WERE BORN FOR THE WORLD WE KNOW EXIST BECAUSE OF YOU. ONE HUNDRED YEARS HAVE GONE BY WE ARE BLESSED THAT WE HAVE FREEDOM FOR THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS BUT COMPUTERS MAY TAKE THAT FREEDOM.
Jun 26, 2012 @ 5:21 am