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| 2004/6/8 [Computer/Theory] UID:30664 Activity:high |
6/8 50th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3781481.stm
http://theregister.co.uk/2004/06/07/manchester_honours_turing
\_ He's gay. WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?
\_ He was gay? I am disgusted. I am going to change major.
\_ I heard there are even homosexuals in the Bay Area. You might
want to transfer to another school.
\_ consider the csua culture of ridiculing girlz to keep it
an all-male institution.
\_ Uh... ridiculing girls? what did I miss? |
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| news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3781481.stm Printable version 'Father of the computer' honoured Alan Turing Without Turing's genius, you may not be reading this caption The father of the modern computer is being honoured, 50 years after he died in tragic circumstances. Alan Turing was one of the pioneers of computer science, and his work helped make the modern PC a reality. He was also one of the secret code breakers working at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. He killed himself on 7 June 1954, by eating an apple he laced with cyanide. On Monday, a blue plaque will be erected outside his home in Cheshire. Enigma buster It was his idea of creating a machine to turn thought processes into binary numbers which was one of the key turning points in the history of the computer. His revolutionary idea was for a machine that would read a series of ones and zeros from a tape. These described the steps needed to solve a problem or task. Turing's experiments are credited with helping Britain win World War II by deciphering encrypted German communications, helping the Allies remain one step ahead. Oestrogen injections But his brilliance would not protect him from the social values of 1950s Britain, and he was taken to court because he was gay. At the time, homosexuality was outlawed in the UK, and when Turing's relationship with a young Manchester man was discovered in 1952, he was threatened with jail. Instead, he agreed to be injected with oestrogen for a year, in an attempt to curb his libido. He was also denied work with GCHQ, the successor to Bletchley Park, because of his sexual orientation. Two years after his conviction he ended his life by eating the poisoned apple. His mother believed he had accidentally taken the cyanide after an experiment, but it is generally accepted he deliberately concocted the experiment so she could believe that. Turing honoured Turing may not be a household name, but his achievements have been recognised. A road has been named after him in Manchester, where he lived for the latter years of his life when he joined Manchester University. There is also a bronze statue of him in Sackville Park in the city's gay village, where he sits on a bench, apple in hand. And the home of his birth in London also has a blue plaque outside, which will now be joined by a plaque outside the place of his death on Adlington Road, in Wilmslow. The unveiling takes place at 1000 BST on Monday, in an event organised by Andrew Crompton from the University of Manchester. |
| theregister.co.uk/2004/06/07/manchester_honours_turing -> www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/07/manchester_honours_turing/ Alan Turing - the brilliant mathemetician and codebreaker who committed suicide 50 years ago today. Manchester University is behind the ceremony which sees a blue plaque dedicated to Turing unveiled on the house in Adlington Road, Wilmslow, where - on 7 June 1954 - Turing ate a cyanide-laced apple. Turing will be best remembered for his work on the German Enigma codes during his time at Bletchley Park, in addition to the thorny "Fish" cypher. Fish was eventually broken with the aid of Colossus in 1944. Turing was fascinated by artificial intelligence and the concept of the programmable single machine capable of handling any task, and by applying his intelligence to this concept he greatly contributed to the development of Bletchley's codebreaking machines and ultimately, the development of the modern computer concept. At Bletchley he was known as "Prof" - an anarchic and socially-awkward man who eventually proposed marriage to colleague Joan Clarke, only to later retract the offer and admit to Clarke his homosexuality. The post-war years saw Turing at Manchester University continuing his work - albeit sporadically - on machine code programming and related subjects. Sadly, he was never truly able to see his brilliant vision become a concrete reality, as the US moved apace towards the "modern" computer as we now know it. In 1952, he was arrested and tried for a homosexual relationship with a young man from Manchester. Turing avoided prison by agreeing to have yearly oestrogen injections to control his libido - a savage punishment at a time that male homosexuality was illegal in Britain. In fact, Turing's homosexuality had already cost him a secret post with with Bletchley's successor - GCHQ. In the chilly Cold War climate of 1948, his sexual orientation resulted in the loss of his security clearance. Left out in the cold, he bitterly resented his treatment at the hands of the security services, who continued to harrass him sporadically. In 1953, he was visited by police apparently looking for a Norwegian who had visited him - an incident widely believed to have been state-security inspired. On 8 June, 1954, Turing's cleaner found him dead in his bed. He had died the day before from eating an apple laced with cyanide. Some have attempted to build a conspiracy around the tragedy, although the coroner's verdict of "suicide" seems plausible. Turing's legacy as one of the founders of computer science cannot be overestimated. |