And without exceptional people to forge the way ahead, we'd all be doing common jobs.
What does the plight of the gay community, the world over, have to do with the exceptionally unfair treatment of one Alan Turing by the British Government?
What does the plight of the gay community, the world over, have to do with the exceptionally unfair treatment of one Alan Turing by the British Government?
An apology to the whole community and any survivors is in order and a posthumous knighthood for A. M. Turing.
That would do nicely.
On another note, whether or not Alan Turing gets knighted I don't think it should make any difference to the rest of us, the man should be a true hero of anybody that knows even a little bit of the history of computing.
It's like what happened to Oppenheimer during McCarthyism. Thousands of perfectly fine people forced out of their work because they were socialist or communist or even just didn't hate communism as much as was expected. At least Oppenheimer got something of an apology. That's not as bad as being chemically castrated, but I think the situation bears some similarities.
Are you saying that in terms of the public profile he had and the major contributions he made?
Because that's suggesting Turing deserved, and still deserves, special treatment for being a clever person (even though he actually faced less than some gay men at the time).
I don't know but I don't imagine even Turing himself would want to hold a position like that. Im sure many more brilliant men were persecuted for their homosexuality most of whom we will never have heard of and never got their chance to make their contribution! :)
Canonise the example, sure. But perhaps not the man: let him be known best for his contribution!
That is very true, but he wasn't violated / mutilated because of his serving the country (and the rest of the world incidentally).
It wasn't to make an example of him. The only reason we even have the spotlight of how inhumane homosexuals were treated in those days is probably because an exceptional thinker also was homosexual.
If not for that it is highly doubtful that there ever would be a way to petition about this with any chance of success.
That's a sad thing, but I suspect it to be the truth.
The manner in which he was arrested rather suggests a honeytrap [I'm speculating here, assess for yourself] - which could account for any animosity of the UK Government, not particularly wanting to reward spies that fell victim to enemy traps. The other point at issue may be that Turing as a 40 year old was picking up teenagers for sex (according to the reports of his arrest) - would someone now be knighted who knowingly followed that sort of promiscuous lifestyle? Would you expect that to be true also in the mid 20th century?
Turing was a great mathematician and left a great legacy in that field, other aspects of his character appear less clear.
Even if your concern is only with exceptional people, think of this: what if a potential future Alan Turing is stymied from exceptional achievements because of barriers due to societal intolerance of his sexual orientation?