[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 His security clearance was revoked, and it's not hard to imagine that this had something to do with his suicide at age 42.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?

[padenot]

There was the ACM Turing 100 conferences last week, but you had to register a while ago. It was a really great celebration, with interventions by a lot of Turing prices (Don Knuth, Vint Cerf, etc.). If you like theoretical computer science, you should definitely take the time to watch the video at [2].

[1]: http://turing100.acm.org/index.cfm?p=home [2]: http://turing100.acm.org/index.cfm?p=webcast

[mohawk]

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

[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.

[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.