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From: notes@ucbcad.UUCP
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Subject: If only he were alive today... - (nf)
Message-ID: <478@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Oct-83 21:52:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.478
Posted: Tue Oct 18 21:52:04 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Oct-83 06:49:38 EDT
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#N:ucbesvax:32500002:000:852
ucbesvax!turner    Oct 14 00:38:00 1983

	A recent issue of New Scientist has an article about Alan Turing
that brought to light some details of his life that I had not known about
before.  One thing that he was a visionary computer architect.  He himself
tended to play this down, since he was interested in computers by way of
theory, and never formally published his (rather influential) designs.

	Another, very tragic "detail": he died in disgrace, ousted from
the intelligence technocracy that his ideas helped to create.  It seems
that he was gay.  He was, in fact, prosecuted for his "perversion", and
chose what is described in the article as "chemical castration" over
serving time in prison.  This might have had something to do with his
death, as well: he committed suicide not many years later.

	He'd be about 70 now, if he had lived.
---
Michael Turner (ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner)