In 1936 the notion of a computable function was clarified by Turing, and he showed the existence of universal computers that, with an appropriate program, could compute anything computed by any other computer. [...] In some subconscious sense even the sales departments of computer manufacturers are aware of this, and they do not advertise magic instructions that cannot be simulated on competitors machines, but only that their machines are faster, cheaper, have more memory, or are easier to program.


"Towards a Mathematical Science of Computation", Information Processing 1962: Proceedings of IFIP Congress 62, ed. Cicely M. Popplewell (Amsterdam, 1963), pp. 21–28

Internet Archive Stanford (23-Jun-1997)

John McCarthy Quotes

In 1936 the notion of a computable function was clarified by Turing, and he showed the existence of universal computers that, with an appropriate...

In 1936 the notion of a computable function was clarified by Turing, and he showed the existence of universal computers that, with an appropriate...

In 1936 the notion of a computable function was clarified by Turing, and he showed the existence of universal computers that, with an appropriate...

In 1936 the notion of a computable function was clarified by Turing, and he showed the existence of universal computers that, with an appropriate...