Nice letter from UK PM regarding Alan Turing

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Steve

Originally posted by: 91TTZIt's as if he's a rallying cry for the gay rights cause.

The problem with that being...???

Knighting him IMO would teach people about the man, both the good things he did for Britain and the bad things done to him. It all starts with a simple "Who's Sir Alan Turing?" to learn.

There is no problem with it, but I think people aren't being straightforward about their motivations. Is it that they want to see a brilliant scientist knighted or is it that they want to see a gay guy knighted? One of those reasons seems to be a legit reason to knight someone while the other one doesn't.

Where is the recognition for Marian Rejewski in here? His work on cracking Enigma seemed more groundbreaking than Turing's.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: Steve

Originally posted by: 91TTZIt's as if he's a rallying cry for the gay rights cause.

The problem with that being...???

Knighting him IMO would teach people about the man, both the good things he did for Britain and the bad things done to him. It all starts with a simple "Who's Sir Alan Turing?" to learn.

There is no problem with it, but I think people aren't being straightforward about their motivations. Is it that they want to see a brilliant scientist knighted or is it that they want to see a gay guy knighted? One of those reasons seems to be a legit reason to knight someone while the other one doesn't.

Where is the recognition for Marian Rejewski in here? His work on cracking Enigma seemed more groundbreaking than Turing's.

For what it's worth, I've never even heard of Marian Rejewski before, but I recall several high school teachers giving lectures about Turing... and then I read more about him just because I was interested.

Elton John was knighted. I couldn't care less about that, and hardly think he deserves to be a knight. Alan Turing, on the other hand, *was* a brilliant scientist and deserves recognition.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Wait, so it was actually illegal to be gay in the UK in the 1950's? Holy shit, man. And what the hell does chemically (or otherwise) castrating a gay man accomplish?