  To summarise: Turing found, and justified on very general and far-reaching grounds, a precise mathematical formulation of the conception of a general process or method. His work, as presented to Newman in April 1936, argued that his formulation of ‘computability’ encompassed ‘the possible processes which can be carried out in computing a number.’ (Turing 1936, p. 232). This opened up new fields of discovery both in practical computation, and in the discussion of human mental processes. However, although Turing had worked as what Newman called ‘a confirmed solitary’ (Hodges 1983, p 113), he soon learned that he was not alone in what Gandy (1988) has called ‘the confluence of ideas in 1936.’