I learned about him during my Computing degree in 1996. He devised “The Turing Test” in regards to AI. It’s only now machines are capable of passing it.
His abominable treatment is a permanent stain on the British government, and on all humanity. His case is a testament to the abject cruelty threatened people can visit upon their fellow man. A brilliant mind, a devoted patriot, a saver of countless lives, driven to the ultimate act of despair. Shame
Soft-peddle slavery, the Civil War, the subjugation of Native Americans, the robber barons, Operation Paperclip and all of the horrible shit the Dulles Bros pulled in the '50s...
The amazing thing is that I first heard of Operation Paperclip in an episode of The X Files. After watching the show, I did some digging and, yeah, if anything the show understated the operation.
TRUMP WILL START NUCLEAR WAR AFTER HE LOOTS THE TREASURY WITH MUSK!!! TRUMP & MUSK WILL DESTROY OUR EDUCATION OUR ECONOMY OUR DEMOCRACY & THEN START NUCLEAR WAR!!!! PARASITIC OLIGARCHS, CHRISTIAN NOTZIS & MAGATS ARE EXTREMELY EVIL VILE DISGUSTING RACIST & DANGEROUS!!! DENY DEFEND DEPOSE & RESIST!!!
Zitkala Sa was a Lakota woman who was forced to endure boarding schools in the 19th century.
She then used that education to write a book about her horrible experiences there. That’s one reason why they want all of us uninformed.
Excellent movie and BTW when I studied history in the early 60s most of us wouldn't have known what a homosexual was, even if they had been allowed to teach about him.
Dear Mr. Turing, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I had yank family in the US Navy and the Merchant Marines. Their survival is very likely due to your brilliance.
Love,
Bobbity
For Computer Science people he is not unknown. A very important AI test is named after him. And then you have Turing-complete related to Turing machines
Turing Test, Turing Completeness, Turing Machine, and of course, the Turing Prize (for the non-nerds: it's the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for computer science).
The imitation game, whilst fun, was a highly sensationalist ridiculous movie only tangentially related to how it really happened too.
People using Hollywood movies for history lessons is part of why we are here IMO, from both sides.
Lots of comments here about the Turing Test but the poster seems rightly to be saying that he was vilified and forgotten in general. He was. He was castrated for having sex with a man. He was PARDONED in 2013 for his 'crime' - being gay. His work saved millions of lives. Not PARDONED until 2013.
It isn't an issue in Britain now like it still is, and is becoming more so, in the US but pop stars were still being outed in the 80s. Christian fundamentalism is on the rise everywhere: they were marching in London last year over abortion. We're in dark times now; we only made them better recently.
Apart from being called a tit, the criticism of my comment is right: I meant he WAS vilified and forgotten, not that he IS. My bad, absolutely. My intended point got lost, which was that in the UK, it was only recently that things changed. I remember the Jeremy Thorpe in the 70s 'scandal' was awful.
Sorry, my bad - I meant chemically and accidentally edited it out when moving things around for the character count. Bad error! Thanks for highlighting.👍
Not to forget the main Mathematics department building at the University of Manchester - which is of course attended by lots of people from places who still arrest (or worse) gay people.
But, yes, very secret and hidden in shame.
His contributions to comp. sci. were well known, and I'd heard of him as a teenager in the rural Midwest. I learned of his work on the Enigma code later, but yrs before "The Imitation Game" came out.
His treatment was utterly deplorable, no doubt about that, but it was pretty typical for the time.
It’s one of the biggest reasons why all these billionaires who’ve made their fortune on an industry entity built on Turing’s work and who are running around talking about inserting “only real masculinity” and anti-LGBTQ policies in their companies really tick me off…
Same thing. I read a lot about ww2. Never heard is name before that movie. He should be remembered as the legend he is. An honourable man and be knighted posthumously!!
You can't knight someone posthumously.
But he's on our money, was voted greatest Britain not that long ago.
There's buildings and institutes to him. He's remembered
TBH part of the reason he wasn't so well known until recently was every bit of his work at Bletchey Park was secret until the late 70s
How he was treated was appalling - but you also have to remember that it was many years after the end of the war that any part of the code breakers activities at Bletchley Park became known.
It happened after Churchill was out of office and thus had no power. I do not know if he tried to alter the action taken against Turing but there are unfortunately many cases worldwide where people are in effect sacrificed to maintain secrecy.
Possible. But he could have had a quiet word with the magistrate, without giving any details of what Turing had done. He could have said, "I can't tell you the details, but he saved the war for us with his expertise and hard work." Only, he didn't care enough.
Of course I don't know. Yet I have no doubt that if he *had* intervened, Turing would not have been punished as severely as he was. Therefore, I conclude he didn't intervene. But I may be wronging him, though I doubt it.
Helped to decipher the Nazi Enigma code, did some of the seminal work on what would become modern computing. And his chemical castration was presented as a choice, driven by theocrats in the English church…spend years in prison and undergo public trial, or castration. Afterwards, he killed himself.
To be honest, all the code breaking work was top secret and only became known mid to late 1980s, so depending on your age, you would not have been taught about it in school. What happened to him was little different than what happened to many WWII heroes when it was found they were gay.
He's not quite completely left out. Programmers are generally aware of him and much of what he did for the world. Various books. And of course the movie.
They don't, however, often talk about him being gay and they definitely should.
It is a tragedy when we lose anyone to fear and hate. It always
I think there's a tiny Alan Turing Lane in Manchester now.
Not a statue along the lines of the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London.
...
As a computer scientist that got his degree back in the early aughts, they did mention him quite a bit in glowing terms. Without the history of what happened to him. Had to learn that part later.
Turing is recognised as a national hero, both for his war efforts and for inventing the computer. Took a while, but there are statues, buildings and research institutes named after him. He’s also on one of our bank notes, like the King, Churchill, Jane Austin and JMW Turner.
Actually he is very well known in IT circles and AI. In fact the test for intelligence vs. sentience is named after him. It's the whole "driven to suicide by chemical castration for homosexuality" part that's largely glossed over in the history books
On and PS the activities of Bletchley Park remained classified until the mid-70s so of fucking course they weren't in school textbooks. We also didn't learn how to make an atom bomb in GCSE Physics.
He was fairly well known in more niche areas like computer science though, because of the idea of Turing machines and the foundational parts of functional programming, which weren’t subject to those restrictions
And I'd really fucking like to know which historians claim that he saved 21 million people because with that many personnel involved you could have walked from Halifax to Liverpool across all the Atlantic convoys.
I think the argument with how many "saved" is that some argue Bletchley Park's activities shortened the war considerably. But I too would like to know how those numbers were calculated.
But apart from the bits about 21 million people serving in the Atlantic convoys and nobody in Britain having heard of Turing and Bletchley Park not being in our history books and his having committed suicide and that film not being homophobic bullshit you're bang on the money so well done you.
I knew about Turing from studying programming because of the references to a Turing Machine. I looked up information about him. I had assumed he was a contemporary of Charles Babbage (1791-1871) and I was surprised to learn he was very modern. I didn't know his fate until later.
Comments
He was unbelievably ahead of his time.
Oscar Wilde, Virginia Wolfe, James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams, Elton John, Josephine Baker, Leonardo da Vinci, and many others.
Navajo Code
Buffalo Soldiers (WWII)
Tulsa Massacre
Juneteenth
There were quite a few things I never heard about in school.
They conveniently disregard anything that goes against their Aryan world view.
She then used that education to write a book about her horrible experiences there. That’s one reason why they want all of us uninformed.
Love,
Bobbity
PS, I hope your having a good time in Heaven ❤️
We don’t have straight pride because straight people weren’t threatened with this kind of horrifying treatment for simply existing.
People using Hollywood movies for history lessons is part of why we are here IMO, from both sides.
I mean' it's a failing organisation, but still.
But, yes, very secret and hidden in shame.
His treatment was utterly deplorable, no doubt about that, but it was pretty typical for the time.
But he's on our money, was voted greatest Britain not that long ago.
There's buildings and institutes to him. He's remembered
TBH part of the reason he wasn't so well known until recently was every bit of his work at Bletchey Park was secret until the late 70s
They still talk about the Turing Test all the time.
What history is it that he's being left out of?
https://youtu.be/FT2rBbVipks?si=NZvMsfRRL5KCpK-O
They don't, however, often talk about him being gay and they definitely should.
It is a tragedy when we lose anyone to fear and hate. It always
Not a statue along the lines of the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, London.
...
Berk.
I mean OPENLY gay men that is.