[Closed] Alan Turing petition

Obviously an important matter. Just a shame our Glorious Leader hasn't looked at some of the other petitions quite as closely...

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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.

"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.

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.

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.

SSOs might not like people announcing that they work there on internet forums though. Think on.

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 😉

Sorry Chris. I'll buy you a Ritazza coffee if you can work out who I am 😉

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.