Slashdot Mirror
UK To Create Alan Turing Institute
kc123 writes "The UK government has announced plans to create the Alan Turing Institute intended to tackle problems in Big Data. The government will provide £42m over five years for the project. Turing was a pivotal figure in mathematics and computing. His codebreaking work led to the cracking of the German 'Enigma' codes. In December 2013, after a series of public campaigns, Turing received a posthumous royal pardon, for a conviction of homosexual activity in 1952."
Great, naming an institute doing something intellectually repulsive after him. How little things change.
Too late, UK or The Queen have no moral rights to use Turing's name!
It would have been better if it had been an institute to research cures for gayness, which Turing would have dearly loved to have
This comment makes me feel very sad because he would have loved to be able to stop being gay. Societies judgments on him let to the self-loathing that eventually led to his suicide. What he needed (but probably didn't even consider possible) was a society that did not stigmatise or judge him.
Actually, some people are completely straight, some people are completely gay, and then there are people in the middle, shades of gray, for whom it is a choice of lifestyle.
So you sound as ignorant as your parent.
Alas, you are confusing choice of action with choice of existence.
For someone that is, to use your term, a "shade of gay", there is only the choice of acting upon this desire. There is no choice in having these partial homosexual tendencies.
To dumb it down, you may choose to never sexually interact with a man for your entire life. This is your choice. You cannot however, choose to not be attracted to other men if you are fully or partially homosexual.
You can't overturn a 1952 conviction for something that was against the law in 1952. That would make the legal system a complete nonsense, with people's convictions for past illegal acts being overturned as the law changed.
Being homosexual is not a life choice any more than skin colour is.
This... doesn't matter either way. It's strange that this is emphasised so often. That homophobia is wrong doesn't depend on homosexuality not being a choice.
The existence of a 'straight pill' would not make homophobia ok.
Don't be an asshole to people just for being different from you strikes me as a much better rule than Don't be an asshole to people just for being different from you, unless those differences are through choice.
Strictly speaking, all a pardon does in UK law is remove the burden of the sentence. It is not a declaration of innocence and basically means nothing more than a get-out-of-jail card. Historically it was only used where it had practical effect, where someone was subject to a sentence of death or was still in prison. More recently, it has been used for things like pardoning deserters shot during WWI.
[FUCK BETA]
The government issued an apology several years ago.
And yes, he did something wrong according to the law at the time, regardless of whether the law has since changed or societies feelings toward such a law has changed - are we to go through every single conviction back to the dawn of time to pardon and apologise to every single person in the same situation every time a law changes?
Alan Turing isn't special, he's just famous. And he gets an apology and a pardon because of it.
It's about time the Brits recognized Alan Turing. Without his Enigma and other crypto accomplishments, you might be speaking German.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.