Alan Turing — "We are not interested in the fact that a machine can solve a problem, but in the…"
We are not interested in the fact that a machine can solve a problem, but in the fact that it can solve a problem that we cannot.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Alan Turing
"No doubt I shall emerge from it all a different man, but quite who I've not found out."
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
"It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some…"
"I see no reason why a machine should not be able to have emotions."
"In the time of Galileo it was argued that the texts, 'And the sun stood still ... and hasted not to go down about a whole day' (Joshua x. 13) and 'He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should …"
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
The true measure of a machine's value isn't that it can do what humans do, but that it can accomplish what lies beyond human capability entirely. A machine that merely replicates human effort offers limited advancement; one that transcends human cognitive limits represents a genuine leap forward in what is achievable by intelligence itself.
Relevance to Alan Turing
Turing spent his career pushing computation into territory human minds couldn't reach alone. At Bletchley Park, Bombe machines cracked Enigma ciphers at speeds no cryptanalyst could match. His theoretical work on computability asked precisely what problems machines could solve that formal human reasoning could not, making this sentiment central to his life's purpose.
The era
In the 1940s and 1950s, early computers were often dismissed as glorified calculators. Turing wrote against this skepticism, arguing machines could exceed human cognitive boundaries. Post-WWII, the codebreaking achievements demonstrated concretely that machines weren't just fast humans but tools capable of solving previously intractable problems, reshaping what civilization considered possible.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].