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Alan Turing Gets an Apology From Prime Minister Brown

Posted by timothy on from the mitigation-is-tricky-50-years-later dept.

99luftballon writes "The British government has officially apologized for the treatment of Alan Turing in the post war era. An online petition got more than enough signatures to force an official statement and Prime Minister Gordon Brown has issued a lengthy apology. 'Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. 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. So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan's work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better.'"

34 of 576 comments (clear)

  1. It's about damn time. by bezking · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If only Alan was alive today...

    1. Re:It's about damn time. by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As they say, justice delayed is justice denied.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    2. Re:It's about damn time. by postbigbang · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It also apologizes for the discrimination he faced. A small, but meaningful token is this.

      Consider that today, you can be gay and a programmer, and nobody cares except the bigots. That's as it should be-- except we need fewer bigots.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    3. Re:It's about damn time. by Aliotroph · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesn't benefit him, but it potentially benefits thousands like him who would suffer similar fates. It helps provide in some small way a defense against more of the same towards others. It's just the correct thing to do, even if it took them too damn long to do it!

      I find it extremely offensive that any state would worry about that type of morality over the scientific/technological progress offered by such a man. Of course, in my world view, even if it was wrong or evil to be gay, I'd keep him around and happy just for the potential contributions towards turning humanity into an all-powerful machine society!

    4. Re:It's about damn time. by novakreo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As they say, justice delayed is justice denied.

      They also say, "better late than never".

      --
      O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
    5. Re:It's about damn time. by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesn't help Turing.

      But it helps me, just a bit.

      I genuinely appreciate it.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    6. Re:It's about damn time. by Keen+Anthony · · Score: 5, Informative

      The formal apology actually does extend to the many other homosexuals who suffered liked Turing. From the actual statement:

      I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions more lived in fear of conviction.

      I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alanâ(TM)s status as one of Britainâ(TM)s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long overdue.,

      But yes, we do tend to only apologize for the most famous examples of society's cruelty to its own members. I think we have a basic need as humans to create symbolic icons. In Britain, Turing was just that. It was in no way a suggestion that his suffering was worst, or that his story alone was regrettable. Oscar Wilde is another example, though I don't think he was castrated. In America, Americans use Rosa Parks as an icon of the civil rights struggle, though she obviously did not endure the worst simply for the fact that she survived.

    7. Re:It's about damn time. by Fael · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's a Turing machine for that.

    8. Re:It's about damn time. by Kratisto · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, Hitler was more the case where, the enemy of my enemy is FUCK IT INVADE RUSSIA WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

      --
      Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
    9. Re:It's about damn time. by Thomas+M+Hughes · · Score: 5, Informative

      Plato said that there is no true measure of justice, but it is important for a government to give the appearance of justice to society. This is a textbook example of that in action.

      What? Plato didn't say that. That's completely wrong. Plato explicitly defined justice in the Republic. I quote:

      we affirmed Justice was doing one's own business, and not being a busybody

      Citation: http://books.google.com/books?id=50SqFuH-4jQC&lpg=PA126&ots=O96UUppWV1&dq=justice%20not%20being%20a%20busybody%20republic&pg=PA126#v=onepage&q=&f=false

      Don't just make up quotes and attribute them to Plato. It makes philosophers really angry.

    10. Re:It's about damn time. by afaik_ianal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And while it doesn't help me directly, it helps a number of my friends just a bit.

      I genuinely appreciate it too.

    11. Re:It's about damn time. by damburger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed, they have a potent weapon called 'postmodernism'. They say a bunch of words and sentences to you, and even though these sentences parse correctly and sound like they are dripping with meaning, they are actually void of any meaning whatever. They are the memetic equivalent of mangled packets, which needlessly tie up your mental facilities, and any brain that hasn't received the postmodernism-is-bullshit patch is susceptible to attack.

      --
      If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    12. Re:It's about damn time. by Xiph · · Score: 5, Funny

      And while it doesn't help me directly, it seems this phrase will get modded up.

      I genuinly appriciate it too.

      ps. i prefer insightful over funny, i'm not just a joker, i'm a karmawhore too!

      --
      Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
  2. Hmmm! by resistant · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's nice to see a politician who can actually pass the Turing test.

    --
    A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
    1. Re:Hmmm! by eclectro · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm sure the apology caused Alan Turing to halt for a moment.

      --
      Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
    2. Re:Hmmm! by russotto · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm sure the apology caused Alan Turing to halt for a moment.

      You'll never prove it.

  3. Not forced by CarpetShark · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An online petition got more than enough signatures to force an official statement

    Bullshit. The British Government happily ignores these online petitions whenever it doesn't suit them to agree. It's simply a matter of them saying something like "We expect the results of an investigation into this matter. We will make a decision in due course. Thanks for playing." They normally rephrase that last part though.

    1. Re:Not forced by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, that's where the 2nd amendment was supposed to come in to play.

  4. Re:Online petition by sbeckstead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd say since about 24 hours ago or however long it was. Seems to have worked.

    --
    Why bother
  5. Re:Proud to be sorry, an odd concept by segedunum · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're obviously not familiar with Gordon Brown as a literary wordsmith.

  6. Not really... by Auraiken · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Humility is an honourable trait.

    1. Re:Not really... by Darkness404 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its easy to say you are sorry for something that you didn't do and weren't accused of doing.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  7. Right On. by beej · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This was long overdue, to be sure, but even now it means so much to so many people. I believe we all owe Turing, whether we know it or not.

    Any time a government admits, "Ok, we screwed up," it's a big deal, and it's usually a sign of change for the better.

    1. Re:Right On. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not "we screwed up", it's "our predecessors, who are long dead, screwed up".

      And it's ridiculous to blame the British government exclusively for what happened to Turing. Anti-gay sentiment was not merely endemic, it was part of the everyday background social noise in almost all levels of society. The government of the day was just reflecting the morals of the day.

      If anything, it's not the government but the people of Britain who owe Turing an apology. As such, it should probably come from the Queen, not Gordon Brown.

      (Arguably, the peoples of the rest of Europe and America owe him just as much, but that's a separate issue. And they didn't actively persecute him, although doubtless they would've done so like a shot if he'd tried to take refuge there.)

  8. An Easy Apology by thechanklybore · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I suppose we should be pleased that Brown has issued this apology, just a shame he's part of a government that knew about torture of terrorism suspects under interrogation. I don't think chemical castration is any worse, and it was even legal at the time. How times have changed eh? Now the government only does awful things to you without evidence and when you've not even had a trial.

    To stop this turning into a rant though, I salute you Alan Turing for bringing philosophy into Computer Science through all your pioneering AI work. You deserved far better.

    1. Re:An Easy Apology by alexborges · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "I suppose we should be pleased that Brown has issued this apology, just a shame he's part of a government that knew about torture of terrorism suspects under interrogation. I don't think chemical castration is any worse, and it was even legal at the time. How times have changed eh? Now the government only does awful things to you without evidence and when you've not even had a trial."

      Well yeah. The thing is, Turing's contribution to the great britain shouldve made him a hero. INstead, he got castrated.

      The cases you point to, at least, were against "enemies" (however true that is). What they did to Alan was against a war hero, perhaps the most important life saver in the retake of europe from the nazis as his work allowed the allies to gather the information they needed to get the nazis out the countries they had invaded.

      Not to mention, for christ sakes, that he was the inventor of computer theory. Not just europe or the brits owed things to him: my job and life revolve arround what he started because I work in computing. The computer revolution would not have been possible without his mathematical work (and that of many others like Von Neuman).

      --
      NO SIG
    2. Re:An Easy Apology by thechanklybore · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree with you. We English have a history of persecuting our great men based on their sexuality (Oscar Wilde for example).

      Still, hero or nobody I imagine that goverment will have a constant supply of things to apologise for in 50 years time to which they will say "I can't believe the abhorrent and barbaric treatment of people in those times".

      Swings and roundabouts.

  9. Doesn't do him justic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a shame they didn't at least pay passing tribute to Turing's full accomplishments. Cracking Enigma and "quite brilliant mathemetician" don't do the man justice. I like Wikipedia's "often considered to be the father of modern computer science" as a starting point.

  10. Re:TL:TL by nbates · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly."

    It is not too late. Homosexuals still exist, even homosexuals that were alive back then.

  11. Re:Congratulations, I guess by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are completely right. Well, almost completely right. The only worse thing would be letting history roll on without even so much as an empty, belated, politically opportune token such as this apology. When an injury is done to someone that is beyond repair or restitution like this, even moving mountains won't fix things. But silence becomes an accomplice to the original act, and at least speaking out serves to break it.

    --
    I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
  12. Re:TL:TL by mdwh2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's an interesting point - is there anyone still alive today who was prosecuted under the laws? Could they get any compensation, or will they only get just words too?

    Still, Brown's tolerance for LGBT people and their sexuality probably doesn't extend as far as the Spanner case, where gay sadomasochists were imprisoned for consensual S&M. When the Labour Government passed the recent law on "extreme" consensual adult images, they cited the Spanner case as justification for the new law. I'm bisexual, and masochist - but despite the welcome improvements to gay rights on the one hand, overall I can't say Labour have made me feel better regarding my sexuality over the last twelve years.

    On the one hand, they propose laws banning hate speech that could cover accusing gay people of being child abusers; but on the other, they themselves compare "extreme" adult images to child porn, and sadomasochism to pedophilia.

  13. Knighthood by (void*)cheerio · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nice gesture. Now they should give him the honour he deserved while he was alive. Considering his contributions to the war effort and Computer Science, he should be knighted.

  14. Re:You do the crime, you do the time. by rsilverman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're missing the point. Brown is not apologizing for Britain having behaved *illegally*, or for having prosecuted Turing. The law was applied as written at the time (I'm assuming; I haven't checked). He's apologizing for Britain's treatment of Turing, period. The law was unjust, and the results horrific. Britain is recognizing this and doing the only thing it can at this point: express its regret.

  15. Re:Online petition by Idarubicin · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...a quart of piss...

    You crazy Yanks and your bizarre 'English' language. The correct UK spelling is B-U-D-W-E-I-S-E-R. And it comes in pints, not quarts.

    --
    ~Idarubicin