Alan Turing is widely recognized as a hero and a genius. He’s considered the father of theoretical computer science and AI.
But he was also a gay man whom the British government chemically castrated.
Turing killed himself because of the way his government treated him.
What more might he have done had he lived?
As this wave of hatred sweeps the US, I wonder how many gay and trans Alan Turings we’ve already lost, and how many we’ll continue to lose.
I'm not convinced that his death was suicide as he was conducting experiments involving cyanide (the poison that killed him) at the time of his death and it is therefore quite possible that he accidentally killed himself with it.
That aside, I absolutely agree; he was treated utterly shamefully by his own government especially when one considers the enormous contribution he made to winning WWII. Others in that era, in positions of power, had their homosexual exploits swept under the carpet and I wonder therefore why he was singled out for 'treatment'.
