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No Money for Monument to Alan Turing?
Anonymous Coward writes "The BBC reports of a project to build a sculpture in honor of computing pioneer Alan Turing that's not doing too well, because attempts to raise money from industry have been fruitless so far...
The
BBC Story carries more information about the lack of support for this statue by anyone. "
Perhaps we should design a large, detailed statue... in VRML.
A pigeon could then sit at the keyboard and try to determine whether it was a real statue or not.
No, he was just gay. Far from partying, Turing had an interesting sense of what constituted a good time. One of his fav games was a version of chess where you had to run all the way around the house between moves.
Contrary to what other people have been saying, I think the plastic arts still have a place in the world. ;) I'd like to see a statue of Turing made, and I'd be willing to contribute a few bucks^H^H^H^Hpounds to make it happen. It would be even cooler if they'd put a little prototypical Turing machine with a tape next to him. :)
Beer recipe: free! #Source
Cold pints: $2 #Product
To those who are not familiar with his contributions to computing and codebreaking, I'd strongly recommend the biography by Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma.
That's a shame, but as a personal monument to Alan Turing, I named my cat Turing. (My teddybear is named Babbage)
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout.
Excellent idea! I've used Apple's feedback page to recommend that they consider setting up the website mentioned in the BBC story to collect money for both purposes:
Even if it only helped on kid a year go to college, it would be a lot more useful than a statue.
Don't denigrate the usefulness of a statue. If artfully executed, the statue might add to its surroundings simply by being there. By simply existing, it may pique the curiosity of a passerby; they might stop, read the plaque, and learn something of the world they didn't know before.
--j, who believes that knowledge is its own end.
Why should this project stand or fall on contributions from American software companies? As the article states, one could make a compelling case that Alan Turing "contributed more than any individual" to defeating the Geramns. And how did official Britain repay him for saving their country?
They publicly humiliated him. They chemically castrated him. They drove him to suicide.
And then there's that hideous postage stamp...
The House of Commons is supposed to vote soon to harmonize the age of consent rule for gays with the one for heterosexuals. They should take the opportunity to redress the wrong done to the old law's most prominent victim.
It wouldn't be enough, but it would be a start.
This is a waste of money that could be much better spent on buying computers for kids and advancing areas that Turing researched.
In a perfect world...
Since I have no idea what exchange rates are, just figure 1 us dollar for every 1 british pound
1.5 dollars to the pound. (not that it matters)
Which would advance society or Turing's ideas more: a bigass motionless statue of some guy no one outside of scientific and computer circles know or 110 computers put into good use by curious young minds?
You've just answered your own question. A 'bigass motionless stature' of some guy no one knows. *That's* the point. How many people would pick up a book about this man; and compare that with the number of people who would walk past this statue and read the plaque..
Big corperations(sp?) could easily spare an extra 55k pounds to donate a few computers as well, if they felt like it. It's all about marketing and if they have something to gain.
If the can gain something, they will; if they don't, they won't.
--- "If a man speaks in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?"
I think the attitude here is probably the same at a lot of software companies - what good is a statue?
Why pour tons of money to put up some big hunk of metal in the guy's image? Why not set up a scholarship fund or something? Even if it only helped on kid a year go to college, it would be a lot more useful than a statue.
--
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Jason Eric Pierce
Turing's monument should be a long bronze tape marked off into cells, each of which can be toggled between two states.
Then all monuments will be possible.
I think a statue would be worthwhile for a number of reasons. Britain has a number of memorials to Generals and other wartime
"heroes", it would be nice to honour a man who's contribution to a war was in the application of intelligence rather than high
explosive, something which is particularly relevant to the current war is the Balkans. It would also serve to remind us of how
shamefully he was treated by the British authorities, the law changing the homosexual age of consent has not been passed yet,
and the recent debate in the hose of Lords shows that homophobia is alive and well in the UK almost 50 years after his death.
As for American corporations contributing to the statue, it is worth remembering that IBM, Microsoft, Oracle etc. employ
thousands of people in the UK who make a contribution to their profits, it is not unreasonable to ask then to contribute to this.
But perhaps the most fitting monument would be to cast a 12 inch bronze figure and put on the inscription "Funded by the UK
Computer Industry". From Alan Turing to Frank Whittle, Britain has a long tradition of producing fine inventors and then
persecuting or ignoring then. It's a tradition we could do without.
I would give money for a statue, but something I would like even more (and give more money to) would be to campaign for the British government to posthumously rehabilitate him. The way they treated him was shameful. I encourage people to visit the Alan Turing Web Page.