The first planning meeting for a conference, Challenging Turing 2012, has been scheduled for this Friday, January 7, 2011 from 9AM-11AM in Gates 104 on the Stanford campus.

We solicit your ideas and participation. If you cannot attend this meeting but you are interested in participating in some fashion, let us know and we will let you know when the next meeting is scheduled, so that you can attend.

The conference is planned be held at Stanford in 2012 as a part of the Centenary Celebrations for Alan Turing. You can find the details of the International effort to celebrate Alan Turing's Centenary at

http://www.turingcentenary.eu/

The Centenary Committee have currently approved and support an original proposal entitled "Challenging Turing".

PROSPECTUS

"Challenging Turing 2012" is an academic research event, with the usual peer review, aimed at celebrating Alan Turing's inquiry in the spirit of that inquiry: by the rigorous and systematic analysis of computational paradigms, their logical foundation for their own sake and their ability to characterize or reproduce behaviors in the world, including intelligent behavior.

We seek to clarify the Challenges that Turing addressed, how Turing would view contemporary interpretations of computation, and hope to stimulate and, perhaps, make further progress. Therefore, the nature of computation is a central theme of the conference.

Alan Turing's work has been broadly influential and it is our intent that the conference attract participation across disciplines that utilize computation to characterize or reproduce natural behaviors.

The question concerning computation in biophysics, for example, is most often incorrectly stated. It is not so much "What is the computational model of biophysical behavior by current standards?" but rather Turing's Challenge that can be summarized as: "Are the current standards of computation sufficient?" and, if not, "How may we identify a computational paradigm that allows us to characterize biophysical behavior?"

Alan Turing would not have supported contemporary expectations that the standard model of computation is sufficient. He acknowledged, in particular, the issue of non-locality in what he termed "consciousness" but put the question aside in order to make progress. And, indeed, he did make progress, demonstrating that it is possible to imbue machines with aspects of our intelligence.

As a consequence the Turing model of computation has been hugely successful and has transformed modern culture, societies and the fortunes of nations. This success deserves celebration in its own right. Yet Turing fully recognized that his contribution was far from a final solution. And so in this event we seek to rekindle an interest in the hard foundational questions that Turing faced.

There will be many pedagogical events celebrating Alan Turing in 2012. Continuing his inquiry and encouraging further progress is a unique way for Stanford University and the Silicon Valley community to recognize and honor Alan Turing's contributions. We plan for the event to be held in September.

EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF THE EVENT

As we may have mentioned before there has been general encouragement to expand the scope of the original proposal. In particular, the ACM are interested in supporting the event. However, the ACM have a special set of objectives and envision a curated event at Stanford. They:

"... want to see ACM lead in organizing a meeting that would be a celebration of Turing and Turing Award winners ... something focused on "the legacy of Turing and the 21st century" with leading researchers talking about the impact of Turing and the directions of the areas of computing his work established. " ... "ACM would want to reach somewhat exclusively into the computing research community in building a program ... and of course, would want to find a way to acknowledge and recognize as many TA winners as possible. Moreover, there is a strong desire to hold what would likely be a one-day symposium immediately before the June 2012 ACM Awards Banquet. The symposium would likely be Friday, June 22, 2012 with the ACM Awards Banquet on Saturday, June 23, 2012 (Turing's Birthday)."

There are scheduling conflicts associated with events in Europe on the Turing Year calendar, especially around Turing's birthday.

In addition, there are other communities locally with an interest in Alan Turing, especially in Cryptography.

One solution to discuss on Friday is that Stanford University extend its recognition and honor of Alan Turing in 2012 by extending the scope of our original proposal to the European Committee, allowing the ACM to hold their curated event at Stanford in June and for a concurrent Cryptography track be added to our originally proposed peer-reviewed event in September. And, further, that these events be coordinated under a single General Chair that is an appropriate Stanford University luminary.

MEETING SCHEDULE AND ATTENDEES

The meeting is set for Friday the 7th from 9am to 11am, in the Gates Building at Stanford University, Room 104. The ACM, Stanford Conference Services, a representative from the Computer History Museum and interested faculty will be present from a variety of departments. We hope to conference in Barry Cooper, Chair of TCAC, from the UK and possibly Jack Copeland from New Zealand. Invitations have also been extended to colleagues at Berkeley and elsewhere in the Bay Area. Several members of Stanford faculty that have expressed interest will, unfortunately, still be out of town. Expressed interest is broad.

Regards, 

Steven Ericsson-Zenith and Dennis Allison