[img]http://imgkk.com/i/d9hq.jpg[/img]
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/19/enigma-codebreaker-alan-turing-posthumous-pardon[/url]
[quote]Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker who took his own life after being convicted of gross indecency under anti-homosexuality legislation, is to be given a posthumous pardon.
The government signalled on Friday that it is prepared to support a backbench bill that would pardon Turing, who died from cyanide poisoning at the age of 41 in 1954 after he was subjected to "chemical castration".
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, a government whip, told peers that the government would table the third reading of the Alan Turing (statutory pardon) bill at the end of October if no amendments are made. "If nobody tables an amendment to this bill, its supporters can be assured that it will have speedy passage to the House of Commons," Ahmad said.[/quote]
Alan Turing was awesome
They only reference the Enigma thing in the article? Without this guy, there literally wouldn't be computers.
I didn't know that's how he died. What. The. Fuck.
Its taken far too long.
Incredible how a man who basically created the information world we live in today, were it not for him we probably wouldn't even be looking at this thread or typing on our keyboards, was treated so harshly and terribly.
Well, it's about time. Better late than never. But barely better.
[QUOTE=Paul McCartney;41523968]They only reference the Enigma thing in the article? Without this guy, there literally wouldn't be computers.[/QUOTE]
We would still have computers, someone else would have figured it out.
[QUOTE=Mad.Hatter;41524452]We would still have computers, someone else would have figured it out.[/QUOTE]
We might also be reading this in german
I never understood this kind of symbolism at all to be quite honest. If you ask me, atoning mistakes to someone you wronged long after they're dead seems more like a bitch slap in their family's face.
[QUOTE=Killer900;41524025]Incredible how a man who basically created the information world we live in today, were it not for him we probably wouldn't even be looking at this thread or typing on our keyboards, was treated so harshly and terribly.[/QUOTE]
The joys of massive homophobia huh? And that was only less than a century ago that we felt is was necessary to chemically castrate homosexuals. We've come quite a long way quite quickly, it's awesome they are recognising him, and their mistakes with this.
Kind of cool that this comes days after we legalised gay marriage
[QUOTE=Paul McCartney;41523968]They only reference the Enigma thing in the article? Without this guy, there literally wouldn't be computers.[/QUOTE]
Well, not strictly. Alonzo Church was literally working on the same problem Turing was, and at the same time (Both took two different paths to prove the Entscheidungsproblem has no solution). In fact, Church published his paper a little while before Turing did, and the only reason Turing's paper was ever published was because one of the reviewers said Turing's proof was significant even if redundant. Turing discovered the Turing Machine for his proof, while Church discovered the Lambda Calculus. The first computers were finite Turing Machines, but the folks at MIT built the [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_machine]Lisp Machine[/URL] a few decades later, which was a limited hardware implementation of the λ-calculus. So even if John von Neumann had never been born or Turing's paper had not been published, we would still have computers, only they would be scaled-down [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine]Connection Machines[/URL] running Lisp on the CPU.
tl;dr Alonzo Church was a bro too
surprised it took so long
also relevant username
[QUOTE=Kyle v2;41524519]I never understood this kind of symbolism at all to be quite honest. If you ask me, atoning mistakes to someone you wronged long after they're dead seems more like a bitch slap in their family's face.[/QUOTE]
Admission of wrong doing is actually very important in a sense.
There are plenty of countries who have carried out unquestionably amoral or hurtful actions, even atrocities, and they simply refuse to acknowledge that anything wrong was done. Instead, it's usually panned out with 'Well it was a different time' or 'It was in accord with the law, so nothing is wrong.'
Japan is really bad about this, and their actions during the South East Asian campaigns, including the Rape of Nanking.
It can infact get out of hand too, if there is no admission. Every brick in the mortar of the legal framework in any country that practices modern governing is one more in favor of progress. Take a look at Russia, who has never had any pro-homosexual legislation. If you tried to get some bill passed pardoning an influential figure from the 1950's who was prosecuted under Stalin's anti-homosexuality laws, well.
Putin wouldn't stop laughing for a week.
Should have been given a fucking [B]apology[/B].
[QUOTE=Kendra;41525238]Should have been given a fucking [B]apology[/B].[/QUOTE]
he did get an apology in 2009 I'm pretty sure
[QUOTE=bunnyspy1;41525301]he did get an apology in 2009 I'm pretty sure[/QUOTE]
Yep, Gordon Brown issued an official apology
[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/pm-apology-to-alan-turing[/url]
[QUOTE=Kyle v2;41524519]I never understood this kind of symbolism at all to be quite honest. If you ask me, atoning mistakes to someone you wronged long after they're dead seems more like a bitch slap in their family's face.[/QUOTE]
Doing the wrong in the first place was the bitch slap. Not apologizing, no matter how long it takes, is a dick move. When you are talking about legal wrongs it's even more important to make it right. It's too easy for people to think those unredressed wrongs validate their current prejudices.
[QUOTE=hexpunK;41524520]The joys of massive homophobia huh? And that was only less than a century ago that we felt is was necessary to chemically castrate homosexuals. We've come quite a long way quite quickly, it's awesome they are recognising him, and their mistakes with this.[/QUOTE]
Why castration though, being gay, it's not like he'd get a woman pregnant anyway
I think it's about time I read The Imitation Game again.
[QUOTE=Mad.Hatter;41524452]We would still have computers, someone else would have figured it out.[/QUOTE]
Not in the exact same way, however.
Wow what the hell is chemical castration
[QUOTE=KorJax;41525986]Wow what the hell is chemical castration[/QUOTE]
when you take chemicals to make your sperm impotent iirc
What they did to him was so terrible. The man made serious break throughs in computer science and did an incredible amount of work towards saving the allies during the war and they did this to him.
[QUOTE=Laputa;41525630]Why castration though, being gay, it's not like he'd get a woman pregnant anyway[/QUOTE]
They believed gay people were sexual deviants, on par with paedophiles and rapists. That's just what they did.
About goddamn time.
[QUOTE=Laputa;41525630]Why castration though, being gay, it's not like he'd get a woman pregnant anyway[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Samiam22;41526014]when you take chemicals to make your sperm impotent iirc[/QUOTE]
Castration completely dulls the libido and sex drive. Chemical castration is reversible IIRC, whereas surgical castration is obviously irreversible.
Trouble with a pardon is that it assumes there was wrongdoing to begin with.
There was an interesting opinion piece in the standard about that the other day, will edit if I can dig it up.
[QUOTE=chumchum;41538723]Trouble with a pardon is that it assumes there was wrongdoing to begin with.
There was an interesting opinion piece in the standard about that the other day, will edit if I can dig it up.[/QUOTE]
Even still though, it's definitely better than it never getting rectified/resolved. This is as close as it can get to changing the past without causing more legal problems in the process.
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