On this day, 7 June 1954, British mathematician and pioneering thinker in the field of artificial intelligence Alan Turing died of cyanide poisoning at the age of 41. Turing had also helped the Allies win World War II by decoding encrypting Nazi communications, and after the war helped develop some of the earliest digital computers.
In 1952, he was convicted of “gross indecency” for homosexuality and sentenced to chemical castration by the state as punishment. His death was officially ruled a suicide, in response to the persecution he had been suffering.
However, the police investigation of his death was entirely inadequate. And while they concluded he deliberately ingested cyanide from an apple, they failed to test the apple for the presence of cyanide. Alternative explanations for his death were that he could have accidentally inhaled cyanide from an experiment, or that British security services killed him to prevent state secrets being passed on to the Soviet Union, which was a common fear held about LGBT+ people whom they typically considered a security risk.
Years of campaigning against the legacy of UK state homophobia eventually resulted in Turing receiving a posthumous pardon in 2013, as well as the passing of the so-called Turing’s Law, which granted posthumous pardons to nearly 50,000 other men convicted of “gross indecency” for same-sex relations.
(I didn't run across this story until a couple of days ago.)
Two very good movies on Alan Turing if anyone would like to learn more about this remarkable gay man and his tragic life:
ReplyDeleteCodebreaker (2011) fact-based interview with flashbacks, intriguing
The Imitation Game (2014) glossy studio take on his work with the Enigma
machine and subsequent persecution
"The imitation Game" movie gives quite a good glance at Turing's life, as well as what we owe him. Excellent performances, starting of course with Benedict Cumberbatch's.
ReplyDeleteMilleson & BatRedneck - I saw "The Imitation Game" and thought it was very good.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I beleive, they placed him on the Britsh 50 pound bank note...
ReplyDeleteVRCooper - That was very good of them.
ReplyDeleteAmazing story. Thanks for sharing. Our history IS history and it must be shared and voiced. Happy Pride.
ReplyDeleteTuring is a beacon of hope now here in the UK, a gay guy in a time when it was punishable by a hard labour prison sentence, chemical castration and shunned by society, at that time a same sex life having to be lived in the shadows for fear of reprisal.....now he is to be honoured by becoming the subject on the reverse of the new issue of £50 notes later this year.
ReplyDeleteMaybe 'we' have turned a corner, sadly in how many other parts of the world is it still 'frighteningly' illegal to be gay, or even contemplate being so?
bobbert - Progress has been made but there's a long way to go.
ReplyDeleteHe was one of the smartest and intelligent man in the world.
ReplyDelete