

Alan Turing's 100th Birthday - Mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, scientist - sparknlaunch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

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jgrahamc
I persuaded New Scientist to open the special on Turing that I wrote to non-
subscribers: [http://blog.jgc.org/2012/06/new-scientists-instant-expert-
on...](http://blog.jgc.org/2012/06/new-scientists-instant-expert-on-alan.html)

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starship
I don't think it's possible to celebrate Turing's life without mentioning how
his life ended. Turing was without a doubt a war hero. His work allowed the
Allies to crack the Nazi's enigma code, without which the war could have gone
very differently. Nonetheless, a few years after the war the UK government,
upon discovering that Turing was gay, prosecuted him for homosexual activities
and treated him horrifically. His security clearance was revoked, and it's not
hard to imagine that this had something to do with his suicide at age 42. Just
something to keep in mind on this gay pride weekend.

It seems the barbarians of medievalism and quackery are always there just
outside the gates, ready to drag us back into the dark ages if those who value
science over superstition don't proactively keep the light burning.

Anyone know of any Turing events going on in the Bay Area?

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mohawk
So unfortunately, in the end, the Nazis did manage to kill him.

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rmc
No, not the Nazi's. Homophobia killed him.

It's easy to pretend that it's was the Nazi's and that the Nazi = "Speak
German and worship Hitler", and so long as you don't do that, then you're OK
and nothing you do or say can be linked to the end of Turing's life.

There is homophobia in many many cultures, all over the place. Even Great
Britain.

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mohawk
Exactly, and my point is that these homophobes, racists, etc. have much more
in common with the Nazis than their passports make them believe. You could
also argue that fighting against Hitler laid bare the hypocrisy of racial
injustice in the United States of America, sparking the Civil Rights movement.

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saljam
There's a conference in his honour this weekend in Manchester, where he did
much of his work. On the list of speakers are Hoare, Knuth, Penrose, Cerf,
Kasparov, Fred Brooks, Rodny Brooks, Shamir, and many others. It's quite
exciting to get so many luminaries in the same event.

<http://www.turing100.manchester.ac.uk/>

Edit: It's also quite expensive!

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kingofspain
_relief_

A friend asked me this morning if I fancied the Turing event this evening in
Manchester. I'm currently skint and a bit under the weather so I had to pass.
Seeing the list of speakers I momentarily felt a lot more unwell until I
realised that this wouldn't be the same event!

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saljam
It was only Jack Copeland today. I had to miss that one as well.

The other public (free) lecture is the Penrose lecture on Monday at 20:00. You
still have to register online I think.

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haberman
I'm participating in an event tonight in Seattle that commemorates Turing's
life and work: <http://synthesist.net/music/turing/>

It's very avant-garde -- sort of a mix between a concert and an exhibit. I'm
not 100% sure what to expect from it, since I've only been working with a few
of the musical elements. It looks interesting though.

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SquareWheel
Check out Google's doodle commemorating Turing's birthday.

<http://www.google.co.nz/>

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excuse-me
Why .nz?

.co.uk I could understand, .com ,being the main site, would be an honour, even
.de would be subtly ironic - but I can't see the connection with kiwis

Does each Google fiefdom get to do it's own toys without the express command
of the chocolate factory?

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TazeTSchnitzel
New Zealand is ahead of the US and UK. Google's Doodles are timed by local
time and locality. So NZ gets them before the US does.

EDIT: Actually, it's quite interesting to look at Google's page about doodles.
Most of the doodles will never be seen by you, since they are country-
specific.

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excuse-me
I see, although it does leave the question - if New Zealand is in the future
why do they have Hobbits?

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pyre
"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return>

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excuse-me
Yes I remember you saying that !

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Sthorpe
Here's to a man who brought newtonian's out of the stone age. Chaos
baby,...Chaos.

Ref: <http://youtu.be/R6NnCOs20GQ>

