June 08, 2004

Alan Turing

Posted by Kieran

It’s fifty years since the death of mathematician, code-breaker and computer pioneer Alan Turing. Turing committed suicide after being forced to take estrogen for a year to “cure” him of his homosexuality. I read Andrew Hodges’ excellent biography of Turing when I was in College. I remember Hodges noting that from about 1935 to his death he had a new and basically unprecedented idea about every five or six years. A remarkable character.

Posted on June 8, 2004 02:33 AM UTC
Comments

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

Posted by JP · June 8, 2004 06:04 AM

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.

Posted by eudoxis · June 8, 2004 06:20 AM

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.

Posted by dsquared · June 8, 2004 07:22 AM

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?

Posted by bad Jim · June 8, 2004 08:53 AM

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.

Posted by bad Jim · June 8, 2004 09:19 AM

Isn’t there a roundabout named after him in Manchester somewhere too?

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.

Posted by harry · June 8, 2004 04:39 PM

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

Posted by fdl · June 8, 2004 05:11 PM

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.

Posted by Arthur D. Hlavaty · June 8, 2004 10:32 PM

To teach the dog to bark. ©

Posted by Ninion · June 14, 2004 12:49 AM
Followups

→ a half century since alan turing died.
Excerpt: Via Slashdot: erroneous writes "Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing: mathematician, code breaker, and computer pioneer. He was today commemorated in his home city of Manchester, UK." Here are stories at the BBC and at...Read more at george.h.williams
→ In Memoriam Alan Turing.
Excerpt: Somehow, between the D-Day anniversary and the death of Ronald Reagan, I managed to miss the fact that Alan Turing died 50 years ago on Monday. He was the founder of computer science, and is considered extremely important in other...Read more at The Cardinal Collective

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.