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Thousands Calling For Apology To Founder Of Computer Science
Gizmodo Australia / BBC ^
| 1 Sept., 2009
| By Joanna Stern
Posted on 09/01/2009 6:56:26 AM PDT by OldSpice
Alan Turing, who is said to be the father of modern computer science, was a WWII code-breaker until he was prosecuted by the British government for having homosexual relations. Thousands have now signed a petition calling for a government apology.
Turing committed suicide two years after his prosecution in 1954, but was before given experimental chemical castration as a treatment. He is most well known for his NAZI enigma code breaking work for the British during the second World War and his helping establish a test to measure the intelligence of a machine which is now known as a Turing Test.
So far more than 5500 signatures have been collected on the Downing Street petition started by computer scientist John Graham-Cumming. Author Ian McEwan put his John Hancock on the petition. [BBC]
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alanturing; buttpirate; castration; enigma; enigmacode; fudgepacker; gay; homosexualagenda; hutsix; poofter; turdburglar; turing; ww2
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To: Nathan Zachary
Even binary systems were used thousands of years ago and have been in use ever since. Turing also did not work alone, rather, he worked for the government with hundreds of others. To me, he laid claim to ideas the entire industry had as a whole. He was an intellectual property thief.
101
posted on
09/01/2009 8:21:24 AM PDT
by
CodeToad
(If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
To: Mojave
Good grief. Now I know what I'm dealing with. There was no "overwhelming" evidence for telepathy "at that time."
*grin* Some people certainly thought there was enough evidence. The Governments of USA, USSR, UK, Germany all spent money and time trying to experiment and learn about it. Carl Jung applied his mind to examining it. It was still respected as a serious avenue of research at that time. Evidence unrefuted was taken as good evidence. Almost 60 years later ... not so much. Of course he would have thought a computer capabale of it if a human being was. He would have thought there was a physical construct in our brains responsble for it - and such could be adapted or recreated for use outside the human brain.
To: nufsed
Don’t forget his kick-a$% hair style.
Ahahhahaha. Some things really don't change. This was somebody that thought "I can just wake up and press my hair flat with wet hands. It'll be fine." *grin*
To: antiRepublicrat
The earliest programming "languages" predate the invention of the computer. Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the Jacquard loom in 1801, The loom is controlled by punchcards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order.
That is simple programing "language".
To: TomOnTheRun
Not caring about hair frees up time to think.
15 years of mostly baldness.
105
posted on
09/01/2009 8:25:27 AM PDT
by
nufsed
(Release the birth certificate, passport, and school records.)
To: Nathan Zachary
If you go to the same wikipedia article you snagged this exact quote from: The loom is controlled by punchcards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Multiple rows of holes are punched on each card and the many cards that compose the design of the textile are strung together in order.
You will see another iportant bit: Although it did no computation based on them, it is considered an important step in the history of computing hardware
No computation - no computer. The jacquard head blocks needle passages physically - it's not a program.
To: HamiltonJay
No, I’m not “ignorant at all. Seems YOU are however, because you don’t seem to understand the basic word definitions, such as “computer”, and “science”. And specifically “science related to computers”. He was father of neither.
To: TomOnTheRun
Some people certainly thought there was enough evidence. Turing didn't say that there was "enough" to consider the possibility. He declared that the "statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming." And you keep dancing around his words.
Psychokinesis, ESP, telepathy...
The "science" of Turing.
108
posted on
09/01/2009 8:29:36 AM PDT
by
Mojave
(Don't blame me. I voted for McClintock.)
To: nufsed
15 years of mostly baldness.
7 years here. The only time it bothers me is in the hottest part of the Texas summer. It's cooler than all the hair I used to have but I do miss the protection from sunburn.
To: Nathan Zachary
He was not “FOUNDER of computer sciences” rather.
To: antiRepublicrat
I wonder how things would have been had Turning been outed in 1938, most likely leaving Enigma unbroken. I remember an alternate history about a successful Operation Sealion that used that as the divergence point.
111
posted on
09/01/2009 8:30:38 AM PDT
by
steve-b
(Intelligent Design -- "A Wizard Did It")
To: OldSpice
if this is all true then he does deserve to be vindicated.
To: TomOnTheRun
Look up the definition of computer, dumb @ss.
A computer is a platform for information processing. A “Language” is anything a machine can “read” and process.
To: TomOnTheRun
And of course I look things up. That’s why I’m right and your wrong.
To: Mojave
Turing didn't say that there was "enough" to consider the possibility. He declared that the "statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming." And you keep dancing around his words.
Fine. How's this - the statistical evidence WAS thought to be overwhelming at that time. He wasn't the only person to think so and many people were conducting scientific testing on the basis of the same evidence.
Funnily enough - his own computational theories helped lead to computer developments that allowed number crunching on a scale sufficient to demonstrate that a lot of the evidence fell within statistical probability. Since then scientists have abandoned the field. Of course there are still people still insist that it happens but only within the parapsychology community.
To: TomOnTheRun
The jacquard head blocks needle passages physically - it's not a program. You never actually read Turing, did you?
"Importance is often attached to the fact that modern digital computers are electrical, and that the nervous system also is electrical. Since Babbage's machine was not electrical, and since all digital computers are in a sense equivalent, we see that this use of electricity cannot be of theoretical importance."
116
posted on
09/01/2009 8:37:38 AM PDT
by
Mojave
(Don't blame me. I voted for McClintock.)
To: TomOnTheRun
Oh, and don’t try change the argument. the claim was “ this fag was ‘FOUNDER of computer sciences”
Not founder of algorithms, Perl, C++, etc. Stick to the FACTS.
To: TomOnTheRun
the statistical evidence WAS thought to be overwhelming at that time. He wasn't the only person to think so No names or source, naturally.
118
posted on
09/01/2009 8:39:12 AM PDT
by
Mojave
(Don't blame me. I voted for McClintock.)
To: Nathan Zachary
I never begrudged you looking things up. I’m merely pointed out that the same article you cited states that the Jacquard loom uses no computation.
To: OldSpice
Chemical castration? Eww! And especially eww with the strength of some drugs of that era.
120
posted on
09/01/2009 8:40:37 AM PDT
by
Still Thinking
(If ignorance is bliss, liberals must be ecstatic!)
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