If nothing else it's put his story on the news and on the web and made it a topic for discussion 
It (sadly) won't mean a thing to Turing, but its not a wasted comment on a dead subject while people like Turing are still being persecuted and executed in backward douchebag cultures all over the world.
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Alan Turing petition
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Posted 2 years ago #
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What eat_the_pudding said. I knew who Alan Turing was, and that he played a really important role in both the Secnd World War and the development of modern computing, but I never realised the circumstances under which he chose to end his life - I had the impression that he was some sort of tortured genius with mental health issues, which is somewhat wide of the mark.
The government's apology is an important reminder that not so long ago, if you were outed as being gay, you could expect "treatment" that was basically torture - for example, "aversion therapy" that consisted of showing you gay porn then giving you an emetic so you puked your guts out. Stuff like that shouldn't be swept under the carpet.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Email from the petition website:
Thank you for signing this petition. The Prime Minister has written a
response. Please read below.Prime Minister: 2009 has been a year of deep reflection – a chance for
Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who
came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred
in us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the British
experience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to
honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches
of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which
have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take
up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am
both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition of computer scientists,
historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark and
celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of
dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on
breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that,
without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could
well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can
point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt
of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that
he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross
indecency’ – in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence – and he
was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemical
castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own
life just two years later.Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing
and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt
with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his
treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance
to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and
the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted
under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions more
lived in fear of conviction.I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this
government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT
community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most
famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long
overdue.But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to
humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united,
democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once
the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in
living memory, people could become so consumed by hate – by
anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices
– that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European
landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls
which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is
thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism,
people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war
are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely
thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved
so much better.Gordon Brown
Posted 2 years ago # -
I think that Gordon Brown is absolutely spot on. And I never thought I'd say that!
Posted 2 years ago # -
Alan Turing was a very clever man, and due to something not quite understod,and that people at the time where affraid of and are still are, he was forced to show his love to other men in private,no emotional hugging or kissing as is allowed in the hetrosexual comunity,he and his fellow gay men lived in fear of being outed,loosing their jobs and freinds,beeing queer bashed, or worse.
Even though gay sex has been legal since 1967,there are still a lot of people who dont accept it,hate gay people and even kill them all for their sexuality.
Let us also not forget all the homosexuals that the germans killed in the last war,in the death camps of Auswitz and others.
Today a government consul was reported as being murdered in Jamaica, for being gay, yet he was married and had kids.Posted 2 years ago # -
Obviously an important matter. Just a shame our Glorious Leader hasn't looked at some of the other petitions quite as closely...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted 2 years ago # -
After hearing Turing described as "a codebreaker" dozens of times this morning, I'm tempted to get a new petition going that he should be recognised as laying down the theoretical foundations of computer science.
Not one mention of Turing Machines, computability, the halting problem, or even of the Manchester Mark One. People know what Newton or Watt did, but when it comes to Turing only one application of his work is ever referred to. It's amazing how computers (and more important, the fact that a machine that can mimic any other machine is even possible) are taken for granted in this way.
Posted 2 years ago # -
"After hearing Turing described as "a codebreaker" dozens of times this morning, I'm tempted to get a new petition going that he should be recognised as laying down the theoretical foundations of computer science.
Not one mention of Turing Machines, computability, the halting problem, or even of the Manchester Mark One. People know what Newton or Watt did, but when it comes to Turing only one application of his work is ever referred to. It's amazing how computers (and more important, the fact that a machine that can mimic any other machine is even possible) are taken for granted in this way."
Bingo. Like I said up the page, for the short-term results he helped produce in WW2 alone, he should be renowned, respected and lauded as a national hero- but that's only a fraction of what he achieved. For his full body of work, he should be a bloody icon.
Posted 2 years ago # -
One of my customers lives in Turings old house. It's a beautiful building on a gorgeous leafy road in Cheshire.
Only a couple of years ago were they able to put up the blue plaque bearing his name.Posted 2 years ago # -
It is not classified that QinetiQ in Malvern have a buildings named after Brian Lovell and Alan Turing.
SSOs might not like people announcing that they work there on internet forums though. Think on.
Posted 2 years ago # -
SSOs might not like people announcing that they work there on internet forums though. Think on.
Oh come on. That sort of thing went out years ago - I mean where am I supposed to say I work when I'm an engineer working in Malvern?I could of course based on your location, job description and acronym knowledge (and the fact you don't actually know what BL stands for, which means you almost certainly don't work at my place) have a pretty good guess where it is you work - I'd wager your employers would be rather more bothered than mine about giving away details like that
Posted 2 years ago # -
Sorry Chris. I'll buy you a Ritazza coffee if you can work out who I am
Posted 2 years ago # -
I must say that I'm pleasantly surprised at this very nicely written and humane response to the petition.
I overheard some guys at work discussing this yesterday. They knew a fair bit about Alan Turing, but they'd assumed that his suicide was a result of depression and they hadn't previously been aware of the full story of his treatment by the authorities.
This sort of thing is about so much more than merely apologising for the actions of previous generations. Firstly it gives our political leaders the opportunity to show leadership and restate their values and ideals for our society today in the context of past injustices. Secondly it acts as a consciousness raiser. It has raised awareness of Turing's ground-breaking work in mathematics, computer science and cryptography, of the fact that despite his major contribution to the Allied victory in WW2 he was persecuted and hounded to his death for being gay, of the fact that for gay men in the post-war period Britain was to all intents and purposes a police state.
I genuinely believe that the more informed and aware people are the less inclined they will be to prejudice. The fact that the petition and the PM's response have attracted so much positive media attention has been very encouraging.
Posted 2 years ago #
Topic Closed
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