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]

[Uri’el-2012]

He presented a paper on 19 February 1946, which was the first detailed design of a stored-program computer.

Joseph-Marie Jaquard (1752-1834) is credited
with the first stored program computer.

John von Neumann suggested the program residing
in the same memory space as the data.

Prior to Von Neumann the programs were a pre-wired board.

[edweena]

True. He might have gotten recognition, but he never would have gotten a poster without the wild hair!

[Mojave]

Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections

No quote, naturally. Let's see why:

"However, there are indications that at least a part of the psyche is not subject to the laws of space and time. Scientific proof of that has been provided by the well-known J. B. Rhine experiments. Along with numerous cases of spontaneous fore- knowledge, non-spatial perceptions, and so on of which I have given a number of examples from my own these experiments prove that the psyche at times functions outside of the spatio-temporal law of causality." --MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS by C. G.Jung

That's the problem with inventing your facts. You get busted.

Rhiner - Biography of Electric Psychokinesis

Looks like a fake citation, not found by Google. Why am I not surprised?

[Mojave]

Astrology is a different matter. I don't believe Turing ever advocated it.

Jung did.

[TomOnTheRun]

No quote, naturally.No quote because I travel with a cell phone - not my entire print library. MDR is a biography - Keep reading because he also disavows some of these things in later life. But the quote you use does cite the experiments from J. Rhine. Is that not what you are interested in? That there were scientific studies considered credible at that time? Later refuted studies but studies all the same.

Looks like a fake citation, not found by Google.A yellowed copy sits on my shelf. Out of print and little referenced does not mean fake.

[TomOnTheRun]

Jung did.

And Jung and astrology aren't the subject. But as an interesting aside you can also dig out that copy of MDR you seem to have handy and find the quote where he explicitly states that astrology is not to be taken for literal truth but rather for active examples of the personality archetypes cropping up, again, throughout human history. He would consult I Ching or Zoroastrian fire temples if he thought it would help a patient while putting zero literal faith in it.

[Mojave]

Keep reading because he also disavows some of these things in later life.

It says nothing of the kind. You're busted.

[TomOnTheRun]

Actually - here’s a google quote from “Jung Astrology” .. one of the first that comes up is a letter to Freud “I dare say that we shall one day discover in astrology a good deal of knowledge that has been intuitively projected into the heavens. For instance, it appears that the signs of the zodiac are character pictures, in other words libido symbols which depict the typical qualities of the libido at a given moment.” - character pictures and libido symbols don’t sound like “As above so below”

[TomOnTheRun]

Here’s a quote from Chapter 2 of Synchronicity: “I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call ‘projected’ - this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations.”

[Mojave]

you can also dig out that copy of MDR you seem to have handy and find the quote where he explicitly states that astrology is not to be taken for literal truth

The word "astrology" doesn't even appear in the text.

MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS
by C. G.Jung
RECORDED AND EDITED BY Aniela Jaffe
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY Richard and Clara Winston
REVISED EDITION
VINTAGE BOOKS
A Division of Random House, Inc.

Busted again.

[TomOnTheRun]

"Although over the centuries various theories have been advanced to describe the functioning of telepathy, none seem to be adequate. In conclusion telepathy, like the other forms of psychic phenomena is elusive and difficult to test systematically. Enough evidence is available to reasonably substantiate the phenomenon does exist. But, quantifying it seems to be another matter. The phenomenon is closely connect to the emotional states on both the sender and receiver which creates difficulty in replicating experimental results. Attitudinal factors also influence the phenomenon."

A statement that something appears to be the case - a flat statement that current theories are inadequate - a follow up saying that it appears to be hard to test - and closer stating that the emotional state appears to play a part. Ringing endorsement or carefully limited to the science?

[Mojave]

“I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call ‘projected’ - this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations.”

Where he was describing his faith in and use of horoscopes.

"Since you want to know my opinion about astrology I can tell you that I've been interested in this particular activity of the human mind since more than 30 years. As I am a psychologist, I am chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character. In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle. I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand. From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call 'projected' - this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations."

[TomOnTheRun]

Then I’ve probably misremembered the book I read it from. I provided quotes from Synchronicity where he limist astrology to libido symbols and projections. I also provided a quote on telepathy. By typing Jung into Google. Something you are also capable of.

[Mojave]

"Enough evidence is available to reasonably substantiate the phenomenon does exist."

Nice foot shot. Oh, and he was full of crap.

[TomOnTheRun]

"Where he was describing his faith in and use of horoscopes."

Yes. As a tool for making new mental connections. For comparing sybols. "I am chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character." I'm not a Jungian - I don't place a lot of faith in a lot of his ideas - but even I can admit that you don't have to believe in literal truth of something to make use of it. I don't believe in astrology or worship greek gods but I routinely use those symbols in my artwork. I don't believe in fate but I keep a bag of random art projects around when I don't know what to paint or draw next.

[Mojave]

As a tool for making new mental connections.

Thanks for the New Age psycho-babble.

[TomOnTheRun]

Nice foot shot. Oh, and he was full of crap.

No - in the absence of evidence to the contrary you work with the evidence you have while regularly testing it. That's they way scientific method works. A lot of scientific ideas have been discredited over the centuries by just such means. Sometimes by people that believed in them up to the time they they performed the test that discredited it.

[TomOnTheRun]

Thanks for the New Age psycho-babble

*shrug* Unexpected connections - latent ideas - synchronicity. None of these have to strain scientific belief. Do you sometimes sleep on a matter and then make a decision? The you've probably thought about it in the back of your mind. Is that idea always easy to bring out into the open? Sometimes yes but sometimes no. Randomness can help because you can study what you project onto the randomness. I don't care what tools people use to chisel those ideas out.

[antiRepublicrat]

He was an intellectual property thief.

No, he actually did a lot of the pioneeering work, but it's history that put him in his place along with the likes of Von Neumann. I've seen no indication of him going for glory. He was just a scientist.

History usually picks out a few of the top people to honor, relegating the contributions of all the others to a few lines in the history books, or to obscurity. For example, why is it that Oskar Schindler is so famous, yet history practically forgot Hermann Goering's younger brother Albert? He used his position, his family name and even forged his older brother's signature to save many Jewish families. He'd order truckloads workers from concentration camps for his factory, yet they somehow always escaped on the way. When caught he'd use big brother to get off, and then go right back to doing it again.

I'd never heard of Albert until a couple years ago, as a footnote to a story about Hermann Goering.

[CodeToad]

Excellent example.