Breaking the code: Alan Turing
Alan Turing was an English mathematician who is often credited with creating the foundation of artificial intelligence and computer science. He also played a major role in World War II, helping break several German codes. Get to know this overlooked genius behind the modern versions of modern computing:
- He was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist.
- Turing played a crucial role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic, and in so doing helped win the war.
- Despite his accomplishments, he was never fully recognized in his home country during his lifetime due to the prevalence of homophobia at the time.
- Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts because “gross indecency” was a criminal offense in the UK. He accepted chemical castration treatment as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954 from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death as a suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning.
- He was given a posthumous royal pardon in 2013. Three years later, the UK government announced it would posthumously pardon other men convicted of abolished sexual offenses, in what was dubbed the “Turing law.”
The fascination with Turing’s story inspired the 2014 movie “The Imitation Game,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. But his scientific range went far beyond the limits of cinematic drama:
He laid down principles that have molded the historical record of the relationship between humans and the machines they have created to solve their problems.
RESOURCE LINKS:
20 LGBTQ figures you should know
–Insider
Overlooked No More: Alan Turing, Condemned Code Breaker and Computer Visionary
-New York Times
