Tuesday, 7 February 2012

BBC News - Government rejects pardon request for Alan Turing



You know, if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll probably be aware that I — like a few other people — think very well of Alan Turing, one of the fathers of modern computer science.

Indeed, it’s also arguable that without him, the computer — as we understand it, today — wouldn’t exist.

Especially his paper, On Computable Numbers, and his World War Two work at Bletchley Park.

The fact he was gay is something that I — with many others — see as practically incidental: but, at the time, a crime.

Unfortunately, the recently created petition asking for him to be pardoned … ?

Has been thrown out by Justice Minister, Lord McNally.

Personally … ?

I’ve said this before, and will say this again …

That is no way to treat a man who’s work helped shorten WW2 by anything up to two years.

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