The father of computing - was it really suicide?

[stockhausen]

Alan Turing, the British mathematical genius and codebreaker born 100 years ago on 23 June, may not have committed suicide, as is widely believed. (BBC online)

Leaving aside the fact that Turing's sexual orientation would thankfully nowadays be accepted without question, comment or criticism by most people in the UK and he would be recognised as a genius to whom the country owed an enormous debt, this is an interesting view on the death of a true genius.

 

[iamtheoneneo]

I was supposed to be going to this conference today/yesterday aswell

At the end of the day its all pretty hard to prove , he got his pardon from GB and he is still regarded as one of the greats so all things considered despite his untimely death and troubled life due to laws at the time , I think in the grand scheme of things hes done well for himself.

 

[jmc007]

Cheers OP, I enjoyed reading the link.

 

[stockhausen]

Alan Turing: Society failed the genius, we must learn from his loss. (BBC online)

Another good read on Alan Turing

 

[AGD]

His death certainly looks suspicious but I guess it's too late to know the truth now.

 

[IRLeetly]

Very interesting read, kick starts the old noggen in the morning.

 

[jmc007]

It's the "chemical castration" that he was subjected to that I find shocking. I didn't know we used to offer this "treatment", to help supress sexual urges, instead of a prison sentence.

 

[Agent_Smith357]

I was supposed to be going to this conference today/yesterday aswell

At the end of the day its all pretty hard to prove , he got his pardon from GB and he is still regarded as one of the greats so all things considered despite his untimely death and troubled life due to laws at the time , I think in the grand scheme of things hes done well for himself.

Really? He was shamed and treated like utter filth by the country that was supposed to look after him and 70 years later he gets a **** pardon from a nobody.

 

[Agent_Smith357]

It's the "chemical castration" that he was subjected to that I find shocking. I didn't know we used to offer this "treatment", to help supress sexual urges, instead of a prison sentence.

Hint - Britian has done lots of terrible things and still continues to do them.

 

[ElliorR]

I know it's history but the way he, and others at the time, were treated was disgusting. I don't care it was the law at the time, unjust laws are unjust no matter when they happened and we still haven't totally learned the lesson regarding the attitude towards gay marriage.

Also, in the same way that if you give a monkey infinite time tapping away at a keyboard he'll write the complete works of Shakespeare, stockhausen has finally come up with a decent thread. Maybe kwerk will as well one day.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Apple will have to find another logo.

(Just in case some of you didn't know the half eaten Apple logo is dedicated to Turing)

 

[bsoltan]

Apple will have to find another logo.

(Just in case some of you didn't know the half eaten Apple logo is dedicated to Turing)

That's not what wikipedia says.

This logo is often erroneously referred to as a tribute to Alan Turing, with the bite mark a reference to his method of suicide.[161][162] Both the designer of the logo and the company deny that there is any homage to Turing in the design of the logo.[160][163]

 

[bitslice]

It's the "chemical castration" that he was subjected to that I find shocking. I didn't know we used to offer this "treatment", to help supress sexual urges, instead of a prison sentence.

What do you mean 'used to'?
Chemical castration is still used in this country but thankfully only for pedophiles.

I'm not sure why they haven't made it compulsory, rather than just releasing them back into the community and hoping for the best.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

That's not what wikipedia says.

Well it's not what a documentary on Steve Jobs said.

 

[Energize]

I know it's history but the way he, and others at the time, were treated was disgusting. I don't care it was the law at the time, unjust laws are unjust no matter when they happened and we still haven't totally learned the lesson regarding the attitude towards gay marriage.

And the number of people enforcing those laws was shocking, the way the police act like automatons enforcing unjust laws today is disturbing. All under the guise of "just doing a job".

 

[cu3ed]

Apple will have to find another logo.

(Just in case some of you didn't know the half eaten Apple logo is dedicated to Turing)

This is what I always thought, and thought it was very clever ( also rinbow coloured Apple icon made some sense lol)

But officially its always been about Jobs' days working picking apples wasnt it?

 

[George Hincapie]

Leaving aside the fact that Turing's sexual orientation would thankfully nowadays be accepted without question, comment or criticism by most people in the UK

Bizarre assertion. Have you asked most of the people in the UK?

 

[reflux]

Well it's not what a documentary on Steve Jobs said.

Apparently he said he wished he had thought to make it a tribute to Turning.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Seems I'm wrong (or the documentary was) -