"Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition." — Alan Turing (1912-1954)

Stephen Hawking and many other scientists have spoken with great admiration and respect for Alan Turing, acknowledging him as a foundational figure not just in computing, but in our understanding of intelligence, logic, and even biology.

What Stephen Hawking said about Alan Turing:

Stephen Hawking was deeply respectful of Turing’s legacy. One of his most quoted statements:

“Turing’s work on computability and the Turing Machine was a turning point in the history of mathematics and computer science.”

He also said:

“Turing is one of the very few people in history who could be said to have laid the groundwork for both the modern computer and the theory of artificial intelligence.”

Hawking frequently cited Turing alongside Newton and Einstein as one of Britain’s greatest scientific minds. He supported Turing’s posthumous pardon, granted in 2013, and saw Turing’s prosecution as a shameful injustice that had held back science and society.

👨‍🔬 Other Prominent Scientists on Turing:

Andrew Hodges (Turing’s biographer, mathematician)

• Described Turing as a “visionary ahead of his time”, who imagined machine learning, AI, and biological computation long before others.
• His biography Alan Turing: The Enigma inspired The Imitation Game and brought Turing to global recognition.

🧠 Tim Berners-Lee (Inventor of the World Wide Web)

“Turing’s vision lives on in every computer, every website, every digital interaction. He showed us that information itself could be mechanized.”

🧠 Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO)

• Google funded a Turing centenary project and has honored him multiple times.

“Without Alan Turing, there would be no Google.”