WWII Hero Alan Mathison Turing

With so much hatred towards others because of their different lifestyles, now would be a good time to highlight an amazing man.

Mathematician, computer scientist and philosopher Mr. Alan Turing

Mathematician, computer scientist and philosopher Mr. Alan Turing

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

Alan Turing was a British logician, mathematician, cryptanalyst, computer scientist and philosopher. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of “algorithm” and “computation” with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer. Turing is widely considered as the “Father of Theoretical Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.

During World War II, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking centre. For a time he led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including improvements to the pre-war Polish bombe method, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine.

Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952, when such acts were still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with estrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death a suicide; his mother and some others believed it was accidental. On 10 September 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated.” The Queen granted him a posthumous pardon on 24 December 2013.

www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12651680

www.turing.org.uk/

Perhaps someone should let Mississippi legislators know about this while they’re running around waving flags to commemorate Victory Day or even D-Day, because a lot more people would have died and the war would have lasted longer had it not been for a gay man, in addition to Navajo Code Talkers and the Tuskegee Airmen, all of whom experienced harsh discrimination and treatment while defending the same country.

31 May 2014