Alan Turing

[sky otter]

.. this makes me wonder if anyone in the future will care about the now..


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18561092


Alan Turing: Inquest's suicide verdict 'not supportable'By Roland Pease

BBC Radio Science Unit
Alan Turing, the British mathematical genius and codebreaker born 100 years ago on 23 June, may not have committed suicide, as is widely believed.

At a conference in Oxford on Saturday, Turing expert Prof Jack Copeland will question the evidence that was presented at the 1954 inquest.

He believes the evidence would not today be accepted as sufficient to establish a suicide verdict.

Indeed, he argues, Turing's death may equally probably have been an accident.

What is well known and accepted is that Alan Turing died of cyanide poisoning.

His housekeeper famously found the 41-year-old mathematician dead in his bed, with a half-eaten apple on his bedside table.

It is widely said that Turing had been haunted by the story of the poisoned apple in the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and had resorted to the same desperate measure to end the persecution he was suffering as a result of his homosexuality.

But according to Prof Copeland, it was Turing's habit to take an apple at bedtime, and that it was quite usual for him not to finish it; the half-eaten remains found near his body cannot be seen as an indication of a deliberate act.

Indeed, the police never tested the apple for the presence of cyanide.

Moreover, Prof Copeland emphasises, a coroner these days would demand evidence of pre-meditation before announcing a verdict of suicide, yet nothing in the accounts of Turing's last days suggest he was in anything but a cheerful mood.

small vid here..can't move..go to link
Start Quote

We have... been recreating the narrative of Turing's life, and we have recreated him as an unhappy young man who committed suicide. But the evidence is not there"
End Quote
Prof Jack Copeland

University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Alan Turing's genius
He had left a note on his office desk, as was his practice, the previous Friday to remind himself of the tasks to be done on his return after the Bank Holiday weekend.

Nevertheless, at the inquest, the coroner, Mr JAK Ferns declared: "In a man of his type, one never knows what his mental processes are going to do next." What he meant by "of this type" is unclear.

The motive for suicide is easy to imagine. In 1952, after he had reported a petty burglary, Turing found himself being investigated for "acts of gross indecency" after he revealed he had had a male lover in his house.

Faced with the prospect of imprisonment, and perhaps with it the loss of the mathematics post he held at Manchester University, which gave him access to one of the world's only computers, Turing accepted the alternative of "chemical castration" - hormone treatment that was supposed to suppress his sexual urges.

It is often repeated that the chemicals caused him to grow breasts, though Turing is only known to have mentioned this once.

The authorities' continuing interest in Turing became apparent in 1953 when a gay Norwegian acquaintance, Kjell, announced by postcard his intention to visit him at his Wilmslow home, but mysteriously never arrived.

Turing told a friend, by way of explanation: "At one stage, the police over the north of England were out searching for him."

With six decades of hindsight, these oppressive attentions, the nation's failure to appreciate his wartime contributions, his apparent sidelining at the Manchester computer department, have led to a tragic picture of Turing being hounded during his last years, and suicide being a natural outcome.

But Prof Copeland argues that on the contrary, Turing's career was at an intellectual high, and that he had borne his treatment "with good humour".

Of the Kjell affair, Turing had written that "for sheer incident, it rivalled the Arnold [gross-indecency] story"; and immediately after his conviction had told a friend: "The day of the trial was by no means disagreeable.

"Whilst in custody with the other criminals, I had a very agreeable sense of irresponsibility, rather like being back at school."

On the face of it, these are not the expressions of someone ground down by adversity.

another unmovable vid here
A centenary celebration at Cambridge University considers Turing's legacy
What is more, Turing had tolerated the year-long hormone treatment and the terms of his probation ("my shining virtue was terrific") with amused fortitude, and another year had since passed seemingly without incident.

In statements to the coroner, friends had attested to his good humour in the days before his death.

His neighbour described him throwing "such a jolly [tea] party" for her and her son four days before he died.

His close friend Robin Gandy, who had stayed with him the weekend before, said that Turing "seemed, if anything, happier than usual".

Yet the coroner recorded a verdict of suicide "while the balance of his mind was disturbed".

Prof Copeland believes the alternative explanation made at the time by Turing's mother is equally likely.

Turing had cyanide in his house for chemical experiments he conducted in his tiny spare room - the nightmare room he had dubbed it.


Bombe decryption machine: We should focus on Turing's genius, says Prof Copeland He had been electrolysing solutions of the poison, and electroplating spoons with gold, a process that requires potassium cyanide. Although famed for his cerebral powers, Turing had also always shown an experimental bent, and these activities were not unusual for him.

But Turing was careless, Prof Copeland argues.

The electrolysis experiment was wired into the ceiling light socket.

On another occasion, an experiment had resulted in severe electric shocks.

And he was known for tasting chemicals to identify them.

Perhaps he had accidentally put his apple into a puddle of cyanide.

Or perhaps, more likely, he had accidentally inhaled cyanide vapours from the bubbling liquid.

Prof Copeland notes that the nightmare room had a "strong smell" of cyanide after Turing's death; that inhalation leads to a slower death than ingestion; and that the distribution of the poison in Turing's organs was more consistent with inhalation than with ingestion.

In his authoritative biography, Andrew Hodges suggests that the experiment was a ruse to disguise suicide, a scenario Turing had apparently mentioned to a friend in the past.


Turing was injected with Stilboestrol - a synthesised form of oestrogen But Jack Copeland argues the evidence should be taken at face value - that an accidental death is certainly consistent with all the currently known circumstances.

The problem, he complains, is that the investigation was conducted so poorly that even murder cannot be ruled out. An "open verdict", recognising this degree of ignorance, would be his preferred position.

None of this excuses the treatment of Turing during his final years, says Prof Copeland.

"Turing was hounded," he told the BBC, adding: "Yet he remained cheerful and humorous."

"The thing is to tell the truth in so far as we know it, and not to speculate.

"In a way we have in modern times been recreating the narrative of Turing's life, and we have recreated him as an unhappy young man who committed suicide. But the evidence is not there.

"The exact circumstances of Turing's death will probably always be unclear," Prof Copeland concludes.

"Perhaps we should just shrug our shoulders, and focus on Turing's life and extraordinary work."

Roland Pease has produced two episodes of Discovery on the BBC World Service devoted to Turing. In the first, he follows the events leading up to Turing's design for a fully programmable computer (Ace) at the National Physical Laboratory. In the second episode, to be broadcast on Monday, he explores the life and legacy of Turing. Both programmes are presented by Standup Mathematician Matt Parker.

forgot to add these other articles


ShareFacebookTwitter.Alan Turing: The experiment that shaped artificial intelligence
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18475646

Alan Turing: Is he really the father of computing?
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18327261

this is a good one
Alan Turing: The codebreaker who saved 'millions of lives'


http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18419691

[sky otter]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/23/22025978-queen-pardons-computing-giant-alan-turing-59-years-after-his-suicide?lite


Queen pardons computing giant Alan Turing 59 years after his suicide

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News
Queen Elizabeth II granted a rare "mercy pardon" Monday to Alan Turing, the computing and mathematics pioneer whose chemical castration for being gay drove him to suicide almost 60 years ago.

Turing was one of the leading scientific geniuses of the 20th century — the man who cracked the supposedly uncrackable Enigma code used by Nazi Germany in World War II and the man many scholars consider the father of modern computer science.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time he was 23, Turing had hypothesized what would become today's computers — the Turing machine, which could emulate any computing device or program. Almost 80 years later, Turing machines are still used in theoretical computation.

In 1950, Turing came up with the famous Turing Test to determine whether a computer can be considered to have attained artificial intelligence.

But Turing was also gay at a time when that was a crime in Britain, and instead of being hailed as one of the crucial figures in defeating the Nazis, he was convicted of "gross indecency" in 1952 for having had sex with a man.

His security clearance was revoked, he was barred from working for the government and he was chemically castrated with massive injections of female hormones. Less than two years later, in 1954, he killed himself with cyanide, an inquest found. He was just 41 years old.

In recent decades, as Turing's ideas and work have come to be recognized as the foundations of today's technology-driven world, scientists and technology leaders lobbied for him to be pardoned.

In 2009, the British government issued a posthumous apology, but scientists and gay-rights advocates wanted his name completely cleared. More than 37,000 people — many of them eminent scientists, led by Stephen Hawking — signed a petition last year urging Elizabeth to remove the scar from the name of "one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the modern era."

In his book, "God Created the Integers," Hawking counted Turing among the most important mathematicians in history, alongside Euclid, Kurt Gödel and Bernard Riemann.

In a decree dated Tuesday but released Monday by Justice Minister Chris Grayling, Elizabeth said she was "Graciously pleased to extend Our Grace and Mercy unto the said Alan Mathison Turing and to grant him Our Free Pardon posthumously in respect of the said convictions."

In a statement, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Turing "saved countless lives" and "played a key role in saving this country in World War II by cracking the German Enigma code."

In a statement of his own, Grayling declared, "A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man."

The rare pardon was issued under the "Royal Prerogative of Mercy," which has been exercised only three other times since 1945, the British newspaper The Independent reported.

Related:
Happy 100th birthday, Alan Turing
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/happy-100th-birthday-alan-turing-6C10402458

[stealthyaroura]

IF any of you get the chance I recommend the Book "the secret life of Bletchley Park"
by Sinclair Mckay.
Really well written and a great insight into intelligence & counterintelligence.

Sad & pathetic the way Alan Turing was singled out and made to "get cured" of his sexuality.

cured?? unbelievable. Thats where apple got the logo from, a nod to the poison apple he
took his life with.

[sky otter]

it took this long for them to catch up with his genius .
.was it prejudice or stupidity that held them back



Alan Turing's 'Morphogenesis' Theory Confirmed 60 Years After His Death

The Huffington Post  | by  David Freeman Email RSS   
Posted: 03/20/2014 8:10 am EDT Updated: 03/21/2014 2:59 am EDT


Alan Turing is remembered mostly for his work in computer science--and for cracking Nazi Germany's Enigma code. But the English mathematician also wrote a key biology paper in which he put forth an explanation for morphogenesis. That's the process by which identical cells in a developing organism differentiate into the various cells that make up the organism's adult form.

Now, 60 years after his suicide, scientists at Brandeis University and the University of Pittsburgh have published a study offering experimental evidence confirming Turing's theory.

Turing was the first to offer a chemical explanation of morphogenesis, study co-author Dr. Seth Fraden, a professor of physics at Brandeis, told The Huffington Post in an email. Turing theorized that cells change shape because chemicals in an embryo react with each other and diffuse across space, according to a written statement released by the University of Pittsburgh. He predicted six different patterns of morphogenesis that could arise from his model.

To test Turing's theory, Fraden and his collaborators created rings of synthetic, cell-like structures. Then Dr. G. Bard Ermentrout, a professor of computational biology and of mathematics at Pitt, used computational tools to analyze the results.



This photo montage depicts morphogenesis from an initial homogeneous state (upper left, same volume and color) through a heterogeneous state (center, same volume but different colors) and into a chemo-physical heterogeneous state (lower right, different volumes and colors). This cellular differentiation takes place exactly as Alan Turing predicted it would in his 1952 paper "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.'

What happened? The researchers observed all six patterns predicted by Turing, plus a seventh that he didn't predict, according to the statement. In addition, the researchers noticed that the once identical cell-like structures started to change in size.

Turing's theory helps explains all sorts of biological phenomena, from the pigmentation of seashells to the shapes of flowers and leaves and even the geometric structures seen in drug-induced hallucinations, according to Ermentrout.

A paper describing the new research was published March 10 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Alan Turing's last name.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/20/alan-turing-morphogenesis-confirmed_n_4986583.html?utm_hp_ref=science

[space otter]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/alan-turing-handwritten-journal-of-enigma-codebreaker-sells-for-more-than-1m-10174072.html


Alan Turing: Handwritten journal of Enigma code-breaker sells for more than $1m




A handwritten notebook that belonged to the celebrated World War II code-breaker Alan Turing has sold in the US for more more than $1m



The 56-page journal, written in a simple notebook bought from a stationers in Cambridge, was sold at an auction on Monday for $1,025,000. The identity of both the seller and buyer have not been released.

The journal, which has never before been seen in public, dates from 1942-44 and covers the period when Turing was working at Britain's Bletchley Park to break the German Enigma Code



Alan Turing was among a team that solved the 'uncrackable' Enigma Code 



The auction house Bonhams said the journal provided a remarkable insight into the thought processes of the mathematician and computer science pioneer. It was among papers left by Turing to his close friend and fellow mathematician Robin Gandy, who wrote a dream journal in the blank centre pages.

The effort of Turing and a team of cryptanalysts to break the code inspired the 2014 film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Turing.

Cassandra Hatton, a spoeswoman for Bonhams, told The Independent, she did not believe the film had increased the value of the document, even though it had shared Turing's story with the broader public.


"The buyer already knew about Alan Turing," she said.

The Associated Press said that in one part of the journal, Turing turns his attention to a complex calculus notation.

"The Leibniz notation I find extremely difficult to understand in spite of it having been the one I understood the best once," he wrote.

"It certainly implies that some relation between x and y has been laid down eg, y(equals)x2+3x."

In addition to the notebook, Bonhams was also offering for sale a working German Enigma enciphering machine. The three-rotor device was manufactured for the German military in July 1944 and sold for $240,000.

Turing was prosecuted for being gay at a time when it was illegal in Britain. He was convicted of indecency in 1952 and agreed to undergo hormone treatment as an alternative to imprisonment to "cure" his homosexuality.

He died in 1954 of cyanide poisoning. It was ruled a suicide although his family and friends believed it might have been accidental.

Gandy gave the papers to King's College in Cambridge in 1977. But he kept the notebook, using its blank pages for writing down his dreams at the request of his psychiatrist. Bonham said Gandy's entries were highly personal. The notebook remained in his possession until he died in 1995.

In the journal, Gandy writes: "It seems a suitable disguise to write in between these notes of Alan's on notation, but possibly a little sinister; a dead father figure, some of whose thoughts I most completely inherited."




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http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/02/13/alan-turings-nephew-im-not-sure-his-royal-pardon-added-a-great-deal/

?  13th February 2015, 3:39 PM 
? Joseph Patrick McCormick




Alan Turing's nephew: 'I'm not sure his Royal Pardon added a great deal'


One of Alan Turing's last surviving relatives has spoken in an interview to say that he isn't sure that a posthumous pardon "added a great deal", but did praise it for drawing attention to others convicted under a gross indecency law.

Gay World War II codebreaker Alan Turing – often hailed as the grandfather of modern computing – was convicted of 'gross indecency' in 1952 after having sex with a man, and was chemically castrated, barred from working for GCHQ, and eventually driven to suicide.

He was granted a Royal Pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy in December 2013.

Sir Dermot Turing speaks in an interview in the current issue of GT (Gay Times) magazine, saying he thinks the chemical castration his uncle, the famed codebreaker, underwent would have been "devastatingly difficult".

He said, despite Turing being very sarcastic about the process of the punishment, his "sense is that it was a bit of a defence mechanism. It must've been unbelievably unsettling."

"The pardon given to Alan struck me as being something one couldn't, in any sense, object to.. But it seemed odd that he'd been singled out.

"I don't want people to go away with the impression that the pardon was a bad thing. Its really hard to criticise it, but I'm not sure that it added a great deal. Other than drawing attention to the fame of the others, which is of course a valid concern."

Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Turing in the recent biopic 'The Imitation Game', last month gave an impassioned speech about late gay codebreaker and computer genius.

The campaign, which is backed by Stephen Fry as well as Cumberbatch, estimates that at least 49,000 men were convicted under gross indecency laws, and calls for a pardon.

An open letter signed by Fry and Cumberbatch, last week asked the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to join the campaign, but they declined.

The full interview is available in the latest edition of GT, here.

[petrus4]

Turing has been hijacked and comandeered by the gay movement as one of their martyrs.  Whether or not said narrative has anything remotely to do with the truth, is completely irrelevant; he serves their purposes regardless.  The customary photo of him, closely resembles Wilde's portrait of Dorian Grey.  That is the image that modern homosexuality wants; the most appealing and close to immaculate image that they are able to produce, and in many cases it is infinitely more attractive than the reality, as Wilde himself knew.  In Turing's case, is it an accurate image?  Who knows?

He was fairly clearly one of computer science's greatest contributors, at least from what I have been able to discover; but then again, I have learned to be as wary of science's heroes as those of politics.  Scratch the surface, and you tend to find that many researchers or inventors who are considered great in the public narrative, actually had an anonymous genius in the background, who the celebrity merely plagiarised from.  Such was certainly the case with Pasteur, at least.

The one great scientist with whom I go closest to losing objectivity is Nikola Tesla, who I adore; but I still I am able to recognise that he had his faults.  The truth these days is a very rare and difficult thing to find; and again, this is especially the case with the likes of Turing, when one of the infernal social justice movements wants to make him one of their icons.

Value him and recognise him, by all means; but do not abandon caution.

[space otter]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/postcard-with-hidden-riddle-sells-for-%C2%A328000/ar-AAmPfSs?li=BBnb7Kz

Postcard with 'hidden riddle' sells for £28,000
The Telegraph The Telegraph
By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter
2/11/2017



3/6 SLIDES © Provided by The Telegraph

Taken at face value, it is nothing more than a postcard of a religious painting, sent by a holidaymaker to one of his closest friends. The signature on the back, however, suggests that all might not be what it seems.

Sent by the legendary cryptologist Alan Turing to his psychologist Dr Franz Greenbaum, it appears to be a coded reference to one of history's most enduring mathematical puzzles, as well as a possible hint to his thoughts of suicide.

The missive has been sold for £28,000 at auction, its high price reflecting the rarity of letters sent by Turing, after the auctioneers became convinced that it contained a hidden message.

Rather than sending Manchester-based Dr Greenbaum and his two daughters a picture postcard of the beaches, Turing chose an image of the illuminated cover of Antiquities of the Jews by the historian Flavius Josephus.

As Turing undoubtedly knew, the First Century writer was the originator of the Josephus Problem, a mathematical puzzle otherwise known as the "suicide circle" or "Roman roulette".

Fighting against the Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War, Josephus and 40 other soldiers became trapped in a cave in July 67AD, surrounded by the Roman forces. Refusing to surrender, the group decided suicide would be preferable, and Josephus suggested a unique method.

After drawing lots, they stood in a circle, and soldier No.1 killed the man to his left, the next man standing killed the man to his left, and so on, going around the circle as many times as it took for only one man to be left alive.

Josephus worked out where he would have to be standing at the beginning in order to be the only man left alive at the end - he was 19th in the circle - and betrayed his comrades by surrendering to the Romans when all the others were dead.

The theme of suicide was an appropriate one for the postcard, as Turing would take his own life using cyanide a year after he sent the postcard.

Dr Greenbaum's daughter Maria Summerscale, 72, said it was impossible to know why Turing chose that particular card, but added: "He was a very obtuse person wasn't he? His knowledge of all these things will have had an impact on his choices."

Mrs Summerscale said her father, who died in 1961, had never discussed the postcard or its meaning, nor did she become aware until much later in life that the patient who would come for dinner with her family was a man of rare genius.

"I was only about nine at the time," she said. "He befriended me and would lie on the living room carpet and play games with me. All I was aware of was a person who was interested in me and wanted to play."

Today, Turing - portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the acclaimed 2014 film The Imitation Game - is lauded as a war hero who helped crack the Enigma code at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking centre, as well as being the father of artificial intelligence.

When the postcard was sent on July 23, 1953, however, he was an anonymous, tortured soul whose homosexuality had led to a criminal conviction and made him effectively unemployable.

Convicted of gross indecency in 1952 after admitting a homosexual relationship, he had agreed to undergo chemical castration as an alternative to a jail sentence.

He had tried to give himself a lift by staying at Club Mediterranee in Corfu, from where he wrote: "I hope you are all enjoying yourselves as well as I am here at Corfu. It is tremendously hot and one wears bathing things all day."

The postcard was originally auctioned in London by Mrs Summerscale and her sister Barbara Maher, but came up again for auction in the US this week.

Turing's mother Sara, who wrote a biography of her son, noted that he "normally shirked letter-writing".

Turing was granted a posthumous pardon by the Queen in 2013.