Turing effectively took a Victorian parlour game and turned it into a piece of modern science. And while the Turing Test has been criticised on a number of levels it also reflects how trying to work out what thinking or intelligent means - and then applying this human concept to machines - is incredibly fraught, and that the appearance of thinking may be the closest we can get.

As Cooper notes: "Maybe there is a theoretical barrier which is being recognised in taking such an approach. Maybe there isnt an algorithm for testing intelligence and in that case what do you have - some kind of empirical approach."

Indeed, while Turings work is responsible for the world of computing which we inhabit, it doesnt necessarily follow that he thought algorithms hold the answer to every question, and we should guard against the assumption that big data can make every decision for us, as Cooper points out. "We have to blame Turing for a lot: the way his work has been interpreted and the primacy of the algorithm these days - and the way in which human thinking has in many ways been marginalised particularly when you are thinking about large organisations."

The computer needs to be kept in context, says Cooper - while it has changed our world and will continue to be important in everything we do, so is the human input which Turing recognises in the Turing Test.

Indeed, Cooper argues that Turings work on artificial intelligence also links up with his work on incomputability - how to solve problems that cannot be solved by using standard digital computing. "Right the way through this 20 year period of discovery hes engaged with not just modelling how we compute but also modelling how we actually transcend what the computer does. Its an amazing body of thinking. This is why he is still significant to us, he was thinking about issues that are still issues for us and in very basic ways that are still valid," he said.

Cooper added: "We havent really got used to the idea that the standard model of computation isnt comprehensive enough to describe whats happening with the internet or whats happening with human thinking or at the quantum level and we are going to have to take that onboard at some point."

He added: "It feels to me that this is Turings revolution in progress now ... its very much part of the way people are thinking about problems now."