Letter/Copy letter

This material is held atUniversity of Manchester Library

  • Reference
    • GB 133 TUR/Add/2
  • Dates of Creation
    • 13 Apr & 26 Apr 1949
  • Physical Description
    • 2 items

Scope and Content

From W Ross Ashby [1903-1972, psychiatrist and cybernetics enthusiast, Ashby was director of research at Barnwood House Hospital, Gloucester, 1947-1959], who reminds Turing that they met in November 1946. Says he has built his computer, which is called the homeostat. He compares this with the ACE, and thinks the ACE could imitate it.

Ashby comments on [Norbert] Weiner's "Cybernetics" [Cybernetics: or control and communication in the animal and the machine (1948) ], approving of "his attempt to illustrate the principles and to show that they are common to tracking devices, to neural mechanisms, and to economic systems". Asks if Turing will be attending a meeting at the Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol on 7 May on "Control mechanisms" In his reply, Turing says he has not yet read Wiener; he is not sure can make the Bristol meeting.