Alan Turing

“I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?'”

“If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent.”

“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”

“Mathematical reasoning may be regarded as rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity.”

“Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.”

“No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I'm after is a mediocre brain, something like the President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.”

“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.”

“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.”

“The idea behind digital computers may be explained by saying that these machines are intended to carry out any operations which could be done by a human computer.”

“The original question, 'Can machines think?' I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.”

“I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past.”