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Alan Turing Biography: Computer Pioneer, Gay Icon
LiveScience ^ | May 9, 2013 | Elaine J. Hom

Posted on 05/12/2013 7:56:36 PM PDT by EveningStar

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1 posted on 05/12/2013 7:56:36 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

Bright guy. What they did to him was wrong.


2 posted on 05/12/2013 7:59:02 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: EveningStar

How do you think Turing himself would want to be remembered? For his world changing concepts in computer architecture or his sex habits?


3 posted on 05/12/2013 7:59:36 PM PDT by DManA
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To: All
Alan Turing: Inquest's suicide verdict 'not supportable'
4 posted on 05/12/2013 8:03:16 PM PDT by EveningStar ("What color is the sky in your world?" -- Frasier Crane)
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To: EveningStar
Alan Turing was a British scientist and a pioneer in computer science. He is well-known for breaking the German Enigma code during World War II. His suicide after being convicted of homosexual acts has made him a martyred hero of the gay community ...

Whether hero or not, he was a martyr. He was being treated with drugs, you know.

As I recall, he called the cops on some guy he had up to his apartment who stole something from him. That's how naive he was. That was the end of him, brilliant man that he was.

5 posted on 05/12/2013 8:05:36 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: EveningStar

His homosexuality is terribly unimportant. By the time of his death, he was in a dry spell and had made no significant breakthroughs in several years. His homosexuality did not help him find his discoveries, and his suicide probably did not deprive the world of much in the way of additional discoveries. He did what he did, and he contributed quite a lot. The homosexuality is an insignificant detail.


6 posted on 05/12/2013 8:05:45 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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Maybe a German lover game him the crack.


7 posted on 05/12/2013 8:07:46 PM PDT by Gene Eric (The Palin Doctrine.)
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Maybe a German lover gave him the crack.


8 posted on 05/12/2013 8:08:13 PM PDT by Gene Eric (The Palin Doctrine.)
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To: EEGator

Of course Oscar Wilde went through something similar. Maybe if we, as a society, had continued to see homosexuality as the aberrant behavior that it is we might have been able to cure it by now.

Oscar Wilde returned to the Church on his death bed!


9 posted on 05/12/2013 8:08:44 PM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong....)
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To: EveningStar
Two greats of science that we all owe a great debt to.

Alan Turing

Tommy Flowers

Turing had genius enough to conceive of the machine...Flowers had the engineering skills to actually construct it.

10 posted on 05/12/2013 8:11:31 PM PDT by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: EveningStar

I’ve never used the gay icon on my computer. Didn’t know I had one.


11 posted on 05/12/2013 8:13:51 PM PDT by married21
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To: melsec

When one is dying, it has a way of making one think about God and the afterlife.


12 posted on 05/12/2013 8:15:58 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: EveningStar

There’s absolutely no doubt he contributed to the world of computing. However, without him, would we have computers? Yes.

Without Oppenheimer, we would still have had the bomb, maybe a little later but that cat was already out of the bag.


13 posted on 05/12/2013 8:17:55 PM PDT by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
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To: EveningStar

Saying that Turing broke the Enigma code reduces what really happened to a sound bite. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/enigma_01.shtml


14 posted on 05/12/2013 8:26:05 PM PDT by FreeAgent
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To: EveningStar

Visited Bletchley Park in 2007 when I was in London. Took the train out there. Met an elderly woman who was there during the war, and a British WWII veteran while on the walking tour.


15 posted on 05/12/2013 8:30:09 PM PDT by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway...John Wayne)
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To: EveningStar

Turing Engine.

Yes, he was a gifted cryptographer.


16 posted on 05/12/2013 8:38:08 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
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To: EEGator

“When one is dying, it has a way of making one think about God and the afterlife.”

Certainly I imagine but even prior to that he had showed a softness towards the Church and an understanding of his own personal faults - I have often thought that was the basis for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Even in that book Dorian visits a Church and his friend begs him to consider his immortal soul.

He was not so much an antagonist towards God/church/society as much as he was of those who individuals who ran said three.

Mel

Mel


17 posted on 05/12/2013 8:49:03 PM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong....)
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To: ClearCase_guy
The homosexuality is an insignificant detail.

Turing was a true genius whose accomplishments had a profound effect on world history. Therefore the details of his character and biography are of interest. Obviously the fact that he was homosexual and was hounded by the authorities because of this are very significant details of his character and biography, as they would also be if true of any other famous person.

18 posted on 05/12/2013 10:05:36 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: Bobalu

God Bless them both. We will never know how many lives these men saved.


19 posted on 05/12/2013 10:59:58 PM PDT by Amberdawn
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To: melsec

From your tagline. “Jolly swagman”

What in the world is a swagman?


20 posted on 05/12/2013 11:05:02 PM PDT by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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