On Computable Numbers: Corrections and Critiques
As is not uncommon in work of such complexity, there are a number of mistakes in ‘On Computable Numbers’. Turing corrected some of these in his short note 2.1, published in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society a few months after the original paper had appeared. The mathematician Emil L. Post’s critique of ‘On Computable Numbers’ was published in 1947 and formed part of Post’s paper ‘Recursive Unsolvability of a Problem of Thue’. Post is one of the major figures in the development of mathematical logic in the twentieth century, although his work did not gainwide recognition until after his death. (Born in 1897, Post died in the same year as Turing.) By 1936 Post had arrived independently at an analysis of computability substantially similar to Turing’s. Post’s ‘problem solver’ operated in a ‘symbol space’ consisting of ‘a two way infinite sequence of spaces or boxes’. A box admitted ‘of but two possible conditions, i.e., being empty or unmarked, and having a single mark in it, say a vertical stroke’. The problem solver worked in accordance with ‘a fixed unalterable set of directions’ and could perform the following ‘primitive acts’: determine whether the box at present occupied is marked or not; erase any mark in the box that is at present occupied; mark the box that is at present occupied if it is unmarked; move to the box to the right of the present position; move to the box to the left of the present position. Later, Post considerably extended certain of the ideas in Turing’s ‘Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals’, developing the important field now called degree theory. In his draft letter to Church, Turing responded to Post’s remarks concerning ‘Turing convention-machines’. It is doubtful whether Turing ever sent the letter. The approximate time of writing can be inferred from Turing’s opening remarks: Kleene’s review appeared in the issue of the Journal of Symbolic Logic dated September 1947 (12: 90–1) and Turing’s ‘Practical Forms of Type Theory’ appeared in the same journal in June 1948.