Posthumous Apology to Gay Code Breaker Who Helped Defeat Nazi Germany

[trof]

On Friday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain issued a public apology to Alan Turing, a mathematician and computer pioneer whose work as a code breaker during World War II helped defeat Nazi Germany. Mr. Turing was convicted of “gross indecency” in 1952 for having a homosexual affair and was forced to endure injections of female hormones. Two years later, killed himself by biting into a poisoned apple.


Alan Turing

Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War II could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ — in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence — and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison — was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/posthumous-apology-to-gay-code-breaker-who-helped-defeat-nazi-germany/

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Unsung hero and early pioneer of the information age.

The apology is late, and rings hollow in view of the great mind lost to the world because of bigotry and hate.

[underpants]

2. It is truly amazing how well they picked and placed talent but then

the US military especially-suddenly they were at war

Thank you Mr.Turing

[lysosome]

3. Was never sure on this.

He died in 1954, several weeks before his 42nd birthday, from an apparently self-administered cyanide poisoning
Sounds suspicious to me.
Oh, and read Cryptonomican by Neil Stephenson for more on this. It's a great read.

[TheBigotBasher]

4. May not have helped that the drugs they put him on

made him grow large breasts.

He helped win a war against such human experiments, only to be experimented on himself.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Subject was turned in a play and then film

both starring Derek Jacobi for whom the role was admirably suited..

[jonnyblitz]

9. i just watched "breaking the code" a few days ago . it was

done by masterpiece theater and aired on PBS in the '90s. it's available on torrent sites on the internet.

[Skittles]

6. kicking for Mr. Turing

they done him very wrong

[Monk06]

7. Turing was not famous for his work breaking the German Enigma codes

He was famous for his 1939 debates with Ludwig Wittgenstien
concerning his Mechanistic Thesis which posed among other problems
that a sufficiently robust computing machine could be said to 'think'

see

http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS/Repository/1.0/Disseminate?view=body&id=pdf_1&handle=euclid.ndjfl/1093637650

His work on Enigma was in fact classified until long after his death and
was one of the reasons the UK gov't could/would not intervene in the morals charges
against him in 1952. It is rumored that the Queen wished to intervene in the
case due to Turing's invaluable contribution to the war effort but the Gov't
feared that the Soviets would find out about the goings on in Blenchly Park.

Of course the Soviets knew a fair amount about the Brits code breaking
abilities due to Philbey Burgess and the Cambridge Five. Which makes the
persecution of Alan Turing all the more tragic and inexcusable.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

8. Code Breaker

Too bad he wasn't recognized for the asset he was when he was still living. I'm sure he was ridiculed and felt not only unwanted but despised. Sad.

[myrna minx]

10. K&R n/t