Alan Turing — "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
The only real valuable thing is intuition.
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
"The machine has a definite state at any moment, which is determined by the instructions it has received and by the results of its previous operations."
"I am a homosexual and I am not ashamed."
"The human mind is a complex adaptive system."
"A computer is a universal machine, capable of carrying out any calculation that can be performed by a human."
"I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?' This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms 'machine' and 'think.'"
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
Raw data, formulas, and logic are tools — but the spark that determines which tools to use, which patterns matter, and where breakthrough lies is intuition. It's the pre-rational capacity to sense the right path before you can prove it. No algorithm, rulebook, or accumulated fact replaces the human ability to make leaps — to know something before you can fully explain why.
Relevance to Alan Turing
Turing built the theoretical foundation of computing, yet his greatest breakthroughs were intuitive leaps. His concept of the universal machine was a conceptual vision, not a step-by-step derivation. At Bletchley Park, cracking Enigma required intuiting enemy operators' habits, not just equations. His 1950 imitation game proposal — that a machine could think — was a philosophical gamble that outpaced any formal proof available to him at the time.
The era
The early 20th century was dominated by efforts to formalize all knowledge — Hilbert's program sought to mechanize mathematics, and logical positivism promised science could replace intuition entirely. Yet two world wars exposed the limits of pure mechanism against human complexity. Turing worked precisely at this collision point, during a period when formal systems visibly failed and irreducible human judgment — reading context, sensing intent, leaping to answers — proved indispensable.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].