Alan Turing 1912-1954
“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine" Alan Turing
Mathematician, logician, philosopher, computer scientist, theoretical biologist, crypanalyst
This father of AI, most of whose work was covered by The Official Secrets Act,
Was denied recognition until 2009 becaise he admitted making love to a man
And was then chemically castrated by the British state.
.............
Truth is hard to find – the years ahead, the years behind,
Yet find it we do – in snatches – on days that go by:
On days when nothing is decided, on throw-away days such as these
Farmyard smells, christmas bells, and all the frumpery of lawns.
Children connect me to the truth: tooth faeries’
Dreams, golden times,
I was caught loving, again,
And then all my world was at an end.
What now eludes me
Metaphors are not fit to give it shape
Neither are the big words
That frighten me so.
The whole edifice
crumbles
In all its contrary implications
In all its disgraces
And in all its lies.
Alan Turing committed suicide by cyanide in 1954.
He was 42 years old.
John Marks
Thu 29th Aug 2019 06:53
My pleasure Keith and thank you Don. It is the waste of such prodigious talent that is so tragic. Pure bigotry ruined his life and denied us all that AT would have contributed in the latter part of his life. He was an adopted son of Manchester, my city, and I share, in a very minor way, his fascination with Mathematics. He was a polymath, a true Renaissance man.