Bank of England unveils new banknote celebrating WW2 code-breaker Turing

Reuters ^ | March 25th 2021 | Reuters Staff

[Ennis85]

The Bank of England unveiled the design of a new banknote celebrating mathematician Alan Turing, who helped Britain win World War Two with his code-breaking skills but is believed to have killed himself after being convicted for having sex with a male partner.

The new 50-pound ($69) note features an image of Turing, mathematical formulae from a 1936 paper he wrote that laid the groundwork for modern computer science, and technical drawings for the machines used to decipher the Enigma code.

The polymer note also carries a quote by Turing about the rise of machine intelligence: “This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.”

Turing built on work by Polish mathematicians who had discovered how to read Germany’s Enigma code, finding a way to crack the Nazis’ increased security of the code.

That story was recounted in the 2014 film The Imitation Game in which Turing was played by actor Benedict Cumberbatch.

Turing’s work led to the decryption of German naval communications that helped allied convoys steer clear of U-boats and was pivotal in the Battle of the Atlantic.

He also developed a technique that led to the breaking of Germany’s more sophisticated Lorenz cypher.

Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 for having sex with a man and underwent chemical castration with injections of female hormones to avoid imprisonment. He lost his security clearance to work with Britain’s GCHQ spy agency.

Homosexual sex was illegal in Britain until 1967.

Turing used cyanide to kill himself in 1954, aged 41, according to an inquest at the time. He was granted a royal pardon by Queen Elizabeth in 2013 for the criminal conviction that preceded his death.

[Ennis85]

"The BoE said it would fly the rainbow flag from its main building in London’s Threadneedle Street on Thursday."

So put on the new £50 note for helping Britain win World War Two then did he?

[Gene Eric]

>> convicted for having sex with a male partner.

Extremely important this is central to his accomplishments /s

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I hope the Bank of England offers these for sale overseas as souvenirs.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

They’ll have to change the aphorism to as queer as a 50 pound note.

[cdcdawg]

“helped Britain win World War Two with his code-breaking skills but is believed to have killed himself after being convicted for having sex with a male partner.”

We know which one he’s being honored for.

[cgbg]

The “Turing test” is a very important concept (for determining whether computers can “pass” as humans).

The problem is that people are getting dumber and dumber—so highly intelligent computers will flunk the test!

[TheDon]

Quite so.

[Ennis85]

Wasn’t it really for because he had sexual relations with a 19 year old? The age of majority in the UK at the time was 21.

[colorado tanker]

Turing was one of the heroes most responsible for our winning the war. He was treated very shabbily for that.

[ecomcon]

Politics. Always with the politics. Why is it important that he was a homo?

[DrGunsforHands]

He was chemically castrated. What happened to him, especially with all he did for the war effort, was a travesty. Cracking enigma and everything else he did probably shortened the war by 2-4 years.

[IYAS9YAS]

There is no need to celebrate his perversity in order to celebrate his accomplishment. Do they celebrate a heterosexual’s sex life when talking about their accomplishments in these situations?

[KC_Lion]

Extremely important this is central to his accomplishments /s

Your Sexual Orientation is the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS!!!

It's second only to the color of your skin in 2021!

[Gene Eric]

Then why not have a banknote dedicated solely to those that were castrated?

[LordOddsocks]

What happened to him was terrible - but no one actually knew what his war effort involved until decades later.

So his service to his country was never a mitigating circumstance.

[Track9]

I’m sure the norks are already counterfeiting it as we speak.

[A Navy Vet]

There is a movie "The Imitation Game" about Turin developing the first computer (huge)to break the German codes, mostly from the then captured Enigma boxes. They started to cut his financing until he had a break through and broke the codes.

However, history says some Polish mathematicians broke the codes first. Keep in mind there were many versions of Enigma since invented in 1933.

Don't know if true in the movie, but the English high command would not use his knowledge to stop certain attacks. To many would show Germany that their codes had been compromised.

[catnipman]

“The “Turing test” is a very important concept “

there’s also the Turing Machine, which is hypothesized as the most universal computing mechanism that can exist, and that ANY other computer than can be designed or built can be simulated with a Turing Machine ...

Also, Church’s Theorem states that if one can prove that a problem is impossible to solve with a Turning Machine, then that problem has been proven to have no solution ...

Alan Turing was a true genius ...

A well rounded computer science education includes the study of the works of such luminaries as Alan Turing, John Von Neumann, Edsger W. Dijkstra, Blaise Pascal, Ada Lovelace, Grace Murray Hopper, John W. Mauchly, and J. Presper Eckert. Jr.

[null and void]

[Bogey78O]

I’ve heard it was because he kept getting busted scouring for young men living on the streets. After the cops busted him the government acted to keep the lid on the scope of his actions.