Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
Turing's 1936 founding paper of computer science — the Turing Machine and the undecidability of the Entscheidungsproblem
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem (Early) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Discrete |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Mediated |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
1936 (paper read May, published November). Twenty-three-year-old Turing, then fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
Space
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
Cambridge / Princeton. Turing's intellectual context was Newman's logic course at Cambridge and the contemporary Princeton group (Church, Kleene, Rosser).
Matter
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
Single 36-page mathematical paper. The abstract Turing Machine is the paper's distinctive contribution — a machine of pure mathematical-symbolic operation, with no physical instantiation required.
Observer
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
Early Turing as logician-mathematician. The paper's 'computer' (originally a human following definite rules) is the abstract idealisation that Turing then mechanises.
Energy
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
Founding-logical energies of the 1936 'three-miracle' year (Turing, Church, Post all independently characterised effective calculability).
Information
On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
The founding paper of theoretical computer science and of the formal theory of information processing. Every digital computer is in principle a Turing machine.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The founding paper of theoretical computer science and one of the most-cited mathematical papers of the twentieth century. Together with Church's contemporaneous lambda-calculus paper, established the Church-Turing thesis. Turing's wartime cryptanalytic work at Bletchley Park (Enigma, Tunny) used these abstract ideas in practical machine design; modern computer architectures remain Turing-machine-equivalent.