Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Petition Demanding Apology and Recognition of Computer Scientist Alan Turing

Thousands of people have signed a petition to Downing Street demanding an apology be on the record regarding computer scientist Alan Turing who was defamed by the British Government.

Alan Turing was the greatest computer scientist ever born in Britain. He laid the foundations of computing, helped break the Nazi Enigma code and told us how to tell whether a machine could think.

He was also gay. He was prosecuted for being gay, chemically castrated as a 'cure', and took his own life, at the age of 41.

The British Government should apologize to Alan Turing for his treatment and recognize that his work created much of the world we live in and saved us from Nazi Germany. And an apology would recognize the tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man's life and career.

Sign the petition to the Prime Minister's office.

2 comments:

Merlyn said...

I have signed the petition. Turing did Britain a great service in helping to crack the German Enigma code during WWII. Everyone who uses a computer owes him an immense debt of gratitude as well.

The way he was persecuted for being gay is a disgrace, but sadly common in that time. Now, with gays in the British military, etc., the govenment ought to admit that it was wrong and apologise.

Anonymous said...

OMG! How sick! Chemically castrate someone
just because they are gay!!! That is SICK!
The British Government does need to appologize.
Not that it would be heard by the man they
need to say it to but to be heard by the whole
GLBT community...

TACKLE YOU HUGS!!!!!!!

Laurie

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