Reactionary Law and Fatal Consequences.
deno, 04 Jul 2006 21:01:36
Have been looking at the career of Alan Turing, Ph.D., who saved this
country by cracking the enigma code. Homosexuality, a crime until the '60's, with,
I think, a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
When he was convicted attitude from the Victorian law was evolving a little
and they classed it as a disease! So he was forced to take hormone treatment
to reduce libido with the result that he grew breasts! His work was
affected as he lost his security clearance. This and other persecution drove him to
take his own life by cyanide poisoning.
So am wondering if we can offer this, as probably the best example, of an
outstanding genius who was lost to science because of an ill conceived law
which having caused great suffering and ruin had to be repealed.
Plenty of recognition posthumous, places named after him, even a statue
erected, but far too late for him.
Should this be sent to HO staff drafting proposed new law pleading that the
same mistakes are not made again with innocent people, of the highest
calibre, victimised and ruined by laws based on misunderstanding of the public's
best interests? No doubt someone could express it more fully and tactfully than
this.
deno posted 4 July
Who was Alan Turing?
Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher,
codebreaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time:
1912 (23 June): Birth, Paddington, London
1926-31: Sherborne School
1930: Death of friend Christopher Morcom
1931-34: Undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge University
1932-35: Quantum mechanics, probability, logic
1935: Elected fellow of King's College, Cambridge
1936: The Turing machine, computability, universal machine
1936-38: Princeton University. Ph.D. Logic, algebra, number theory
1938-39: Return to Cambridge. Introduced to German Enigma cipher machine
1939-40: The Bombe, machine for Enigma decryption
1939-42: Breaking of U-boat Enigma, saving battle of the Atlantic
1943-45: Chief Anglo-American crypto consultant. Electronic work.
1945: National Physical Laboratory, London
1946: Computer and software design leading the world.
1947-48: Programming, neural nets, and artificial intelligence
1948: Manchester University
1949: First serious mathematical use of a computer
1950: The Turing Test for machine intelligence
1951: Elected FRS. Non-linear theory of biological growth
1952: Arrested as a homosexual, loss of security clearance
1953-54: Unfinished work in biology and physics
1954 (7 June): Death (suicide) by cyanide poisoning, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
Alan Turing in 1946.
_Full picture_ (http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/scrapbook/run.html)
Attachment:.
message.html (text/html)
Paul Tavener, 04 Jul 2006 22:30:23
Sounds like a good idea to me.
On a slightly more worrysome note, if the current proposals are brought into law (and there's a lot of water to go under the bridge before then) then people may suffer a similar end.
Hopefully it won't be neccessary, and I hate to say it but the question must be asked - how many people are prepared to make what level of sacriffice for the cause?
Author wrote:
> Have been looking at the career of Alan Turing, Ph.D., who saved this
> country by cracking the enigma code. Homosexuality, a crime until the '60's, with,
> I think, a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
> When he was convicted attitude from the Victorian law was evolving a little
> and they classed it as a disease! So he was forced to take hormone treatment
> to reduce libido with the result that he grew breasts! His work was
> affected as he lost his security clearance. This and other persecution drove him to
> take his own life by cyanide poisoning.
> So am wondering if we can offer this, as probably the best example, of an
> outstanding genius who was lost to science because of an ill conceived law
> which having caused great suffering and ruin had to be repealed.
> Plenty of recognition posthumous, places named after him, even a statue
> erected, but far too late for him.
> Should this be sent to HO staff drafting proposed new law pleading that the
> same mistakes are not made again with innocent people, of the highest
> calibre, victimised and ruined by laws based on misunderstanding of the public's
> best interests? No doubt someone could express it more fully and tactfully than
> this.
> deno posted 4 July
> Who was Alan Turing?
> Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher,
> codebreaker, strange visionary and a gay man before his time:
> 1912 (23 June): Birth, Paddington, London
> 1926-31: Sherborne School
> 1930: Death of friend Christopher Morcom
> 1931-34: Undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge University
> 1932-35: Quantum mechanics, probability, logic
> 1935: Elected fellow of King's College, Cambridge
> 1936: The Turing machine, computability, universal machine
> 1936-38: Princeton University. Ph.D. Logic, algebra, number theory
> 1938-39: Return to Cambridge. Introduced to German Enigma cipher machine
> 1939-40: The Bombe, machine for Enigma decryption
> 1939-42: Breaking of U-boat Enigma, saving battle of the Atlantic
> 1943-45: Chief Anglo-American crypto consultant. Electronic work.
> 1945: National Physical Laboratory, London
> 1946: Computer and software design leading the world.
> 1947-48: Programming, neural nets, and artificial intelligence
> 1948: Manchester University
> 1949: First serious mathematical use of a computer
> 1950: The Turing Test for machine intelligence
> 1951: Elected FRS. Non-linear theory of biological growth
> 1952: Arrested as a homosexual, loss of security clearance
> 1953-54: Unfinished work in biology and physics
> 1954 (7 June): Death (suicide) by cyanide poisoning, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
> Alan Turing in 1946.
> _Full picture_ (http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/scrapbook/run.html)