UK apologizes to Alan Turing

[Chuck(G)]

After more than a half-century since Alan Turing's death, the UK has finally decided that an apology is in order. Too bad that Mr. Turing will never hear it.

For the non-scientific folks out there, Turing is one of the giant figures in modern computation. Here's a link to his Wikipedia entry.

Sometimes I think that no politician could ever pass the Turing test...

 

[pontus]

About time!

Poor poor man, a true hero!

 

[Ole Juul]

I noticed that news item as well. What this does for anybody living is probably minimal, although there may be family. One good thing is that it does raise the public awareness of a great man.

 

[Dwight Elvey]

Hi
There is a story that after he died, they found a
Victoria Cross in his belongings. This is the highest
honor a civilian can receive. It was keep secret because
of the work he did to get it.
Dwight

 

[pontus]

Hi
There is a story that after he died, they found a
Victoria Cross in his belongings. This is the highest
honor a civilian can receive. It was keep secret because
of the work he did to get it.
Dwight

I would like to see a source for that statement. I also wonder if his destiny would have been different if his achievements were not kept secret.

 

[Chuck(G)]

While there has been some recognition for the Bletchley Park workers, I can find no report of Turing ever having received the VC or any other award for his work there.

 

[Dwight Elvey]

While there has been some recognition for the Bletchley Park workers, I can find no report of Turing ever having received the VC or any other award for his work there.

Hi
As I said, it was a story I read. I can't find any reference to it on
the web but I do recall reading it in a book on computer history
but that was years ago. It could always be just brain fade and got
muttled over the years.
Dwight

 

[nige the hippy]

I doubt Turing would have got a medal. On reading the book "Colossus" (sorry I can't give you an author at present, a mate has the book) which seems very well researched. It seems that there was such a tiny slice of the command chain that knew about what was going on at Bletchley there were complaints about the "black hole" in the budgets going towards machinery etc.

The attitude towards wartime secrecy in the UK seemed "super - responsible" On a personal note, during WW2 my grandad was an inspector on the Merlin aero-engine production line (Spitfire etc), and as such didn't get called up. apparently he tore a strip off his barber just for asking him "How's things at the factory" with the explaination that he didn't know who the barber was going to speak to next.

It was only in the late '70s that the existence of the machines was de-classified, and even that was a quiet affair. the general public never really got to hear about them till probably the 1990s.

 

[Dwight Elvey]

Hi
Your most likely right. The only thing I can find is that
he was a OBE.
Dwight

 

[Chuckster_in_Jax]

For those who don't know who Alan Turing is or his importance to computing, just google his name. It's some interesting stuff.

You cannot get a degree in computer science without studying his theoretical computing machines. Here is the course outline from University of North Florida's required course.

COT 3210 - Computability and Automata (3 credit hours)
Prerequisite: COT 3100 and COP 3530. Applications of automata and language theory to computing. Finite automata and regular expressions. Formal languages and syntactic analysis. Pushdown automata and Turing machines. Undecidability and computational complexity.