Born On This Day- June 23rd... Alan Turing

I have to be honest.  Because his contribution lies outside of the arts & literature, I would not have known of his life but for the play & film in the late 1990s- Breaking The Code starring openly gay Derek Jacobi.

He saved the world from the Nazis & the importance to the modern world of the mathematical, philosophical, & cryptographic work of Alan Mathison Turing cannot be overestimated.

A gifted mathematician, Turing is remembered today as one of the founders of computer science. The Turing Machine is an abstract device that "consists" of an infinite paper tape & a reader that can move forwards & backwards altering what is on the tape. However, despite its' simplicity, it remains a model for all aspects of computing today. It may prove to be a model for all actions that can be performed by a computer, but that problem is as yet unsolved. It is amazing that he invented it before computers as we know them really existed.

However, his most significant accomplishment was the person responsible for breaking the "unbreakable" German codes during WW2. Given the limited resources the British had, the precise knowledge of German intentions allowed the British to concentrate those resources so that they could achieve superiority in battle. Turing's contribution to victory in that war ranks as high as that of anyone else other than Winston Churchill.

Despite the fact that he may have been the most brilliant scientist of his generation, someone whose work in deciphering the German codes during World War II played a major role in achieving Allied victory, Turing was discarded & deemed a security risk because of his homosexuality.

Turing is remembered not only for his work on computers & the cracking of the Enigma machine codes during WW II, but also because of his needless, horrific death. He committed suicide at the age of 41, 2 years after his arrest, conviction, & forced chemical castration for his homosexuality.

In about 1948 when he decided to have a more positive gay life it was just the point when there was a change from silence to active persecution of homos in Britain. After pioneering work in computers, software design, & artificial intelligence, Turing was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at an unusually young age; in 1948 Turing's life took a turn for the worse.

Turing had moved to Manchester after accepting a position as Deputy Director of the Royal Society Computing Laboratory at the University of Manchester, where he soon became involved with a young working class man- Murray Arnold, who would later break into his home.

After reporting the burglary, Turing was arrested & prosecuted for what was then known under British law as Gross Indecency, under which Oscar Wilde had also been charged in 1895. Even through this ordeal, he remained open & unapologetic about his sexuality. Turing was offered a stark choice: go to prison or submit to the administration of the hormone oestrogen. Intended to suppress his libido, it was a kind of chemical castration.

This treatment left Turing impotent. He also developed breasts. He found his security clearances revoked & he was unable to continue his pioneering work. 2 years after his arrest, & 1 year after the barbaric 'therapy', Turing killed himself.

He left no note, & the circumstances of his death were inadequately investigated and perhaps left deliberately murky. It is believed that he committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide. Turing probably drank the cyanide but left an apple by his bed. It was a grim joke against his reputation for impracticality kindly allowing those who wanted to believe that he had ingested the poison by mistake. Turing knew the apple was an icon of death in the Snow White story.

His story is tragic, but the twist to his story is part of the comedy of life which, despite everything, he did his best to enjoy.

The city of Manchester has done something to celebrate Turing's life & achievements & make amends for the cruel treatment he received.  There is now a major road called Alan Turing Way, & a statue of Turing in a park in Manchester's Gay Village.

In September 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way in which Turing was treated after the war.

There is also a statue at the University of Surrey, close to Turing's childhood home. In June 2007 a new statue of Turing was unveiled at Bletchley Park Research Center, where he carried out his work during the war.

As I rechecked dated & facts for this post, today’s Google Doodle is a tribute to Turing on his 100^th birthday. I doubt that is a coincidence that Steve Jobs named his company- Apple.