Alan Turing's 100th Birthday

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Today is Alan Turing's 100th birthday. He's the man who helped crack the German ciphers in WWII and pretty much invented the basics of computer science.

Later, he was persecuted for being homosexual.

If the Computer Age were to have a secular patron saint, I would nominate him. Not that he was particularly saintly, he really wasn't but being martyred counts for something.

I don't suggest you read up on him unless you feel like being either angry or depressed.

Hugs to all,
Erin

Comments

Google tribute

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The Google homepage has a Turing machine that you have to "program" to spell out Google in binary. If you've studied such things, you'll probably share my view that it's brilliant.

Pioneering Systems

Bike Resources

Or...

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If you're just geeky. I love these types of things. I found it very fun to do. I did google him when I saw his name appearing in the news. The end of his life was very sad. But it's worth noting that the British government did end up issuing a public apology a few years ago. It doesn't make him any less dead but at least it shows society is heading in a decidedly less crappy direction.

Is it...

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Angharad's picture

...When you have the Roman Catholic church actively campaigning against a US president because he wants to make contraception free to people who can't usually afford it, and because he supports gay marriage. If the religious right had anything to do with it, we'd still be in the medieval period and people who are different like Turing, or many readers here would be burnt at the stake.

Angharad

Difference between science and engineering

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erin's picture

Lovelace may have invented computer programming which is engineering. Turing invented computer science which is the theory and understanding of how computers work. Different things. You don't have to have any metallurgical science to make a broadsword, or any understanding of chemical valence to start a fire, for instance.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Wow

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That looks so cool :-)

Testing

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So was this posted by the real Erin or just a blogbot simulating human intelligence? I can't tell.

(and that anger/depression causing stuff is somewhat relevant around here, as a real world worst case example.)

Alan Turing's 100th Birthday

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Thanks for posting the Blog. I believe that there is a Turing Test used to see how life like an artificial intelligence is.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

We should be grateful ...

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... that his homosexuality didn't become known to the authorities until after the war or we would have been deprived of the huge contribution he made to shortening it. It's hard to understand how those who adopted the mindset that made homosexuality a security risk didn't realise that their attitude made it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I am, however, always suspicious of anyone's being labelled as the 'inventor' of computing. Just as powered flight owed its success to many people and not just the Wright brothers so did the genesis of computing rely on lots of ideas from a variety of sources like Ada Lovelace (Lord Byron's daughter) and George Boole for example.

A great man and it's a small appreciation that the main road that passes the Manchester Velodrome is called Alan Turing Way. One of my heroes as is Michael Faraday.

Robi

Accident, or suicide?

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Haylee V's picture

Turing had a habit of eating apples in bed. He also used potassium cyanide in his work. At his death, a half-eaten apple was found, and it contained traces of cyanide. The way the body was placed on the bed was reminiscent of Sleeping Beauty. Just a little too coincidental to be coincidence, IMHO.

*Kisses Always*
Haylee V

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