Comments on: Alan Turing

By: Ninion

Ninion — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 00:49:45 +0000

To teach the dog to bark. (c)

By: Arthur D. Hlavaty

Arthur D. Hlavaty — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 22:32:39 +0000

I once met a British transvestite who told me he had been given estrogen in an attempt to “cure” him. He said the only difference it made was that he looked better in a dress.

By: fdl

fdl — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 17:11:36 +0000

Cryptonomicon has a great fictionalized version of Turing. Considering the importance of information theory in today’s world, his contribution to the modern world is probably on a par with Einstein. a great, tragic figure. francis

By: harry

harry — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 16:39:46 +0000

Isn’t there a roundabout named after him in Manchester somewhere too? bq. And, I’ve always thought, a pretty good candidate for the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, for winning us the Battle of the Atlantic if nothing else. Don’t be silly, Daniel, he was (more-or-less) openly queer, and brainy with it. And not really off the top shelf. How could we honour someone like that? Especially for being a war hero.

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 09:19:16 +0000

Assuming that Turing did bite the cyanide-dusted apple (shades of Sleeping Beauty), his criminal conviction, the year of hormone treatment and the likely waning of his creative powers, or, alternatively and equivalenty, his loss of confidence in them, might well have sufficed to induce him to choose the nearest exit. Bronze, not brass. Sorry about that. The ACM gives the Turing Award anually, and there is no higher praise.

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 08:53:31 +0000

He’s got a brass statue of himself at ease on a park bench in Manchester, and a major award conferred by the Association for Computing Machinery. Von Neumann, I’ve read, advised him to relocate to the U.S., since his sexual proclivities would have been less dangerous to him there (here). Probably true at the time, and likely still true. I missed a CompSci lecture, and wondered a while thereafter why the lecturer was shilling for BMW. What’s all this about a Turing machine?

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 07:22:41 +0000

And, I’ve always thought, a pretty good candidate for the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, for winning us the Battle of the Atlantic if nothing else.

By: eudoxis

eudoxis — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 06:20:13 +0000

Estrogen reduces the amount of testosterone in males. The treatment (chemical castrastion) was intended to produce a decreased libido. Side effects include certain female characteristics, but I haven’t heard that suicidal depression is one of them.

By: JP

JP — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 06:04:08 +0000

Wait – how would estrogen, of all things, cure a guy of homosexuality?