By YAKUB QURESHI - MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS
Added: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:00:00 UTC

UPDATE 19-Aug

Dawkins calls for official apology for Turing

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/dawkins-calls-for-official-apology-for-turing-1774033.html

Richard Dawkins last night joined the campaign to win an official apology for Alan Turing, the code-breaking genius and father of the modern computer who committed suicide in 1954 after being prosecuted for being homosexual.

More than 2,500 people have now added their name to the on-line petition calling for the Government to recognise the "consequences of prejudice" that ended the life of the scientist aged just 41.

Professor Dawkins said that an apology would "send a signal to the world which needs to be sent", and that Turing would still be alive today if it were not for the repressive, religion-influenced laws which drove him to despair.
...
Continue reading
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/dawkins-calls-for-official-apology-for-turing-1774033.html

_____________________________________________________________________
There is a link in the news article to sign the petition; you need to be a British citizen.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1132035_campaign_to_win_official_apology_for_alan_turing

A link to discussion in the Forum
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=90140

Also a link to discussion at Pharyngula
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/08/its_a_little_late_for_an_apolo.php

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to win a posthumous apology for computer pioneer Alan Turing over his conviction for homosexuality.

The brilliant mathematician, who spent his key years at Manchester University, is hailed as one of the founders of modern computing.

But a conviction for homosexuality effectively ended his career. Troubled Turing went on to commit suicide in 1954, aged just 41.

Now a group of admirers of the scientist - named as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century by Time Magazine - are lobbying the government to make a posthumous apology.

Codebreaker

The Cambridge graduate was one of Britain's best wartime codebreakers - part of the team at Bletchley Park which unravelled the secret of the Enigma code machines used by German U-boats. Turing was awarded an OBE in 1945 for his wartime services to the Foreign Office and moved to Manchester to help work on the pioneering Mark 1 computer.

He was prosecuted for gross indecency for having sex with a man in 1952, but escaped jail after being offered an alternative of taking an experimental hormone treatment to reduce sex drive.
...
Continue reading
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1132035_campaign_to_win_official_apology_for_alan_turing

TAGGED: MATH, RICHARD DAWKINS

---

Tweet