Slashdot Mirror
Fight Begins To Secure Turing Papers For Bletchley Park Museum
Blacklaw writes "Auction house Christie's is planning to sell offprints of Alan Turing's early work for an estimated £500,000 — and the fight has begun to raise the money so UK codebreaking museum and charity Bletchley Park can house the documents in the building where Turing performed his war-winning work and birthed the concept of a modern 'universal computer.' If the money isn't raised, the papers could disappear into a private archive, never to be seen again."
You are trolling, but for the sake of accuracy here is what is generally acknowledged to be the case.
- after the war he struggled to get the kind of role and financial support he should have been given without a quibble or a bat of the eye - he eventually got a very good job at the University of Manchester, which is a great place, but it is amazing that he wasn't treated as a national treasure (was it 2 of Hilberts challenges he solved? Even allowing for the secrecy around the work during the war someone in the know should have pushed it on that basis)
- he was targeted for blackmail due to being gay when it was illegal
- the police arrested him and he was prosecuted and punished with hormone therapy
- the depression caused by the therapy and the awful behavior of society towards him, and his own personal isolation caused him to take his life
- he did it in such a way to allow his mother to go on believing that it was an accident
In 1956 the UK government had no reason to kill him, in fact it never did - quite the opposite. Instead they treated a great man with indifference and contempt because of his sexuality. I can't say that I can think of a more pathetic story in all senses of the word.
If you want to feel worse about it (as a human) then think what might have been if he had lived 25 more years and had enjoyed the appropriate support
--------------------------------------------- "In the end, we're all just water and old stars."
They still killed him - by hate and indifference. You do not have to pull the trigger to kill a man. I fully agree that this is one of the most pathetic stories of the modern age.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
I'm surprised too. I mean, what's the interest in them being in the museum? It's not like they're original manuscripts, they're just the first print runs. Turing's papers are interesting for their content, not for the paper that they're printed on, and no one is going to go to a museum to read a paper (awkwardly displayed in a glass case in a dimly lit room so the print doesn't fade), when you can easily grab a PDF online. Turing's papers are fascinating, and I'd expect computer scientists to read them, but I don't see the attraction in collecting the offprints.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
What must be more sad (if it's a question of volume) is that uncounted numbers of people like Turing were then, before, and are treated this way today, but there is no sympathy or support or help for them because they are just people and not geniuses. We don't know who most of them are because, like Turing, they hide the truth from most people in their lives.
They may not be subject to hormone therapy (though some were) but are ostracized, ridiculed, excluded, persecuted, killed. Even here on Slashdot surrounded by supposedly smart people.
We can do better.