Turing’s scientific creations and wartime heroics are beyond question but we are able to show a more complete portrait of the man who, far from being the cold, insular lone genius of popular belief, can be seen as a convivial character with many endearing qualities.
Turing, who had undoubted eccentricities and a particular intensity of thought, debated complicated theories with colleagues while running Olympic-standard races and was regarded with affection by colleagues throughout his career. His treatment at the end of his life is a source of national shame.”
Background
Alan Turing’s influence on the history of computing is profound and enduring. At the time when he began his academic career at Cambridge in the 1930s, the term ‘computer’ was often used for a person working to solve scientific and technical problems with a variety of mechanical calculating devices. Before long, Turing had written a paper which set the basis for a machine capable of solving many problems, the foundation of the modern computer.
Following the War, Turing developed a new computer at the government’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Completed in 1950, Pilot ACE was not only the physical validation of Turing’s theories, but a powerful computing tool which could be put to a wide variety of uses. It analysed jet aircraft structures following a series of crashes, eventually helping to reveal the source of the problem and leading to changes in aeroplane design; it was used by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin in her examinations of the structure of vitamin B12 and insulin molecules; and it was put into use as one of the earliest computer traffic simulators.
During his time in the relatively sympathetic surroundings at Cambridge and Bletchley, the fact of Turing’s homosexuality was not a significant issue. He later moved to Manchester University to continue his innovative work and, in 1952, he was arrested in Manchester following a relationship with technician Arnold Murray and convicted of gross indecency. Faced with a choice of imprisonment or chemical castration – a course of treatment with female sex hormones – he chose the latter. Throughout and beyond his treatment he continued to work at a highly advanced level, but in 1954 he was found dead in his bed from cyanide poisoning. The coroner's official verdict was suicide, although his death is still the subject of some debate.
In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a formal national apology to Turing, in which he stated “It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of the Second World War could have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely… While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time, and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him.”
Exhibition dates: 21 June 2012 – June 2013. Admission: FREE. Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD. This exhibition was made possible by the support of Google.
Editor's Note: Lecture, The Amazing Alan Turing - Richard Buckland. 2012 The Alan Turing Year centenary
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