Who is Alan Turing you might ask. Well, that’s a good question. Turing can be best described as a British mathematician who is considered to be the father of modern computer science. His accomplishments include:
- He broke Nazi codes that helped win World War II
- He created a secure speech encryption system
- He made major contributions to logic and philosophy
- He invented the concept of Artificial Intelligence
However he was also gay. Today that wouldn’t have been a big deal. But 60 years ago, that was a crime. One that he was convicted of. That lead to his suicide at age 41. For years, people including Steven Hawking have fought to clear his name and yesterday they succeeded. He was given a rare royal pardon. Something that has only happened three times previously. Now, some will say that this pardon is basically dropping the charges and that’s not enough. But the fact is that you can’t go back to 1952 and make the case disappear. So the best that the British government can do is say that they regret what happened. That is something that cannot be ignored and it’s better late than never.
In the meantime, I would encourage you all to read about Alan Turing because without him, your smartphone, the moon landing or even Siri would not exist.
Related
This entry was posted on December 24, 2013 at 10:13 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Alan Turing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Alan Turing Receives Royal Pardon
Who is Alan Turing you might ask. Well, that’s a good question. Turing can be best described as a British mathematician who is considered to be the father of modern computer science. His accomplishments include:
However he was also gay. Today that wouldn’t have been a big deal. But 60 years ago, that was a crime. One that he was convicted of. That lead to his suicide at age 41. For years, people including Steven Hawking have fought to clear his name and yesterday they succeeded. He was given a rare royal pardon. Something that has only happened three times previously. Now, some will say that this pardon is basically dropping the charges and that’s not enough. But the fact is that you can’t go back to 1952 and make the case disappear. So the best that the British government can do is say that they regret what happened. That is something that cannot be ignored and it’s better late than never.
In the meantime, I would encourage you all to read about Alan Turing because without him, your smartphone, the moon landing or even Siri would not exist.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on December 24, 2013 at 10:13 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Alan Turing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.