Found Sci DOI 10.1007/s10699-013-9327-x Turing and the Serendipitous Discovery of the Modern Computer Aurea Anguera de Sojo · Juan Ares · Juan A. Lara · David Lizcano · María A. Martínez · Juan Pazos © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract In the centenary year of Turing’s birth, a lot of good things are sure to be written about him. But it is hard to find something new to write about Turing. This is the biggest merit of this article: it shows how von Neumann’s architecture of the modern computer is a serendipitous consequence of the universal Turing machine, built to solve a logical problem. Keywords Serendipity · Turing · Turing’s machine · Universal Turing machine · Von Neumann’s architecture A. Anguera de Sojo Technical University of Madrid, Escuela Universitaria de Informática, Ctra. de Valencia, Km. 7, Madrid 28031, Spain e-mail: aanguera@eui.upm.es J. Ares Coruña University, Facultad de Informática, Campus de Elviña s/n, 15071A Coruña, Galicia, Spain e-mail: juanar@udc.es J. A. Lara · D. Lizcano · M. A. Martínez (B) Madrid Open University, Camino de la Fonda, 20, 28400 Collado-Villalba, Madrid, Spain e-mail: mariaaurora.martinez@udima.es J. A. Lara e-mail: juanalfonso.lara@udima.es D. Lizcano e-mail: david.lizcano@udima.es J. Pazos Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Facultad de Informática, Technical University of Madrid, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28660 Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain e-mail: jpazos@fi.upm.es 123