Thousands Calling For Apology To Founder Of Computer Science

Gizmodo Australia / BBC ^ | 1 Sept., 2009 | By Joanna Stern

[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]

[CodeToad]

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.

[TomOnTheRun]

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.

[TomOnTheRun]

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*

[Nathan Zachary]

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".

[nufsed]

Not caring about hair frees up time to think.

15 years of mostly baldness.

[TomOnTheRun]

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.

[Nathan Zachary]

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.

[Mojave]

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.

[TomOnTheRun]

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.

[Nathan Zachary]

He was not “FOUNDER of computer sciences” rather.

[steve-b]

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.

[wardaddy]

if this is all true then he does deserve to be vindicated.

[Nathan Zachary]

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.

[Nathan Zachary]

And of course I look things up. That’s why I’m right and your wrong.

[TomOnTheRun]

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.

[Mojave]

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."

[Nathan Zachary]

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.

[Mojave]

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.

[TomOnTheRun]

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.

[Still Thinking]

Chemical castration? Eww! And especially eww with the strength of some drugs of that era.