[FOM] History of computable functions

[praatika@mappi.helsinki.fi]

Lainaus "Andrej Bauer" <andrej.bauer at andrej.com>:

> A student of mine is working on a seminar in which he will show in
> excruciating detail that the general recursive functions embed in
> untyped lambda calculus (this is at undergraduate level). He would
> like to know more about the history of computable functions, lambda
> calculus, Turing machines, etc., with a reasonably correct timeline of
> who did what when. Can someone please suggest some reading material?


Here are some standard references:

Martin Davis (1982) “Why Gödel didn’t have Church’s thesis”,  
Information and Control 54, 3-24.
Martin Davis (1983) “The prehistory and early history of automated  
reasoning”, teoksessa J. Siekmann & G. Wrightson (eds.) Automation of  
Reasoning, vol. 1, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1-28.
Martin Davis (1987) “Mathematical logic and the origin of modern  
computers”, teoksessa Studies in the History of Mathematics, 137-165.  
Washington, D.C., Mathematical Association of America.

Gandy, Robin (1988) “The confluence of ideas in 1936”, in Rolf Herken  
(ed.) (1988) The Universal Turing Machine. A Half-Century Survey,  
Oxford University Press, Verlagen Berlin, 55-111.

S.C: Kleene (1981) “Origins of recursive function theory”, Annals of  
the History of Computing 3, 52-67.



Best, Panu



Panu Raatikainen

Ph.D., Academy Research Fellow,
Docent in Theoretical Philosophy

Department of Philosophy
University of Helsinki
Finland


E-mail: panu.raatikainen at helsinki.fi

http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/praatika/