Minorities: Alan Mathison Turing
●○● Introduction
I often wrote 'Turing' instead of 'mister Turing', because it's easier to write.
I have searched information about Alan Mathison Turing, because I wanted to learn about minorities. Turing has become well known and was a gay man, but being well known does not make him less part of a group of minorities.
Let me know it if you find something wrong or just want to say something. I'm interested in what others think about the topic.
❗️Reminder: I have tried to be accurate and checked information I didn't understand. Still, there was not a second person checking this nor was it done by a professional. You will find the sources wich I took a lot of information from at the bottom, but I have not collected sources wich I only used for small things (like a few sentences).
❗️Warning: I will talk about su*cide, h*omophobia and s*xism. Words surrounding these topics are not censored in the text below.
{●☆●} Summary of the life of Alan Mathison Turing
Turing's accomplishments:
- 1939. Turing worked on a hypothetical computer. The computer was built in 1942 and was based on Turing's ideas. These computers can be seen as the ancestors of digital computers.
- 1941. Turing and his coworkers deciphered enigma codes that were about German boats that were hunting down Allied ships. These Allied ships carried supplies from the US to Europe. The German boats sank more than 700 Allied ships wirh 2,3 million tons of cargo. The German boats would be sunk or circumnavigated. This saved thousands of lives. Cracking the enigma codes is considered one of the greatest achievements during World War II, because it played a big role in the reason that the alliance won.
- 1950. Turing wrote about a test that became later known as the Turng test.
- 1951. Turing works on Artifical Life, wich is still an unfinished concept.
Turing's award:
- 1945. Turing was awarded the OBE. The OBE is the Order of the British Empire. He was rewarded for his brave wartime services, but his work remained secret for many years.
- 1951. Turing's contribution to mathematics earned him membership in the Royal Society and the A.M. Turing Award.
Turing's punishment:
- 1952. Turing was arrested for being gay. He was arrested for 'gross indecency'. He had to go through a chemical catraction. He died two years later from cyanide poisoning.
{●☆●} The life of Alan Mathison Turing
1912. Alan Mathison Turing was born in London. His mother was Ethel Sara Turing. His father was Julius Mathison Turing.
1926-1931. Turing was very interested in science and math. His teachers and principal were concerned, because he was not interested in the traditional classical education. The headmaster even wrote to his parents that Alan was wasting his time at a public school if he focused on only becoming a Scientific Specialist instead of aiming to become educated.
1930. Christopher Morcom, Turing's friend, dies suddenly from tuberculosis. Turing is devastated, because he lost a close friend. He also learned about the horrors of war. He believed that it is not logical that innocent people die. He also believed that science is more logical than religion. Turing became an atheist after his friends' death. 🐸 See footnote 1 🐸
1936-1938. Turing attended the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton. Turing studied math and ctyptology.
- Cryptology is about using data to communicate with secret codes, so only the messenger and reciever understand the text. A third party can't read it, unless they decipher the codes.
1938. Turing earns his PHD from Princeton University.
- Turing worked part-time with the GCCS: Goverment Code and Cypher School. This is a Britisch code breaking organisation. He worked on cryptoanalysis of the enigma (a code that can be seen as a puzzle).
1939. World War 2 started. Once the war started, Turing started his work with the GCCS. He worked on the Bombe: a device to decipher the messages sent by Germans with their Enigma machines. The device was built on a machine that the Polish had already made.
- Turing also worked on a hypothetical computer. The computer was built in 1942 and was based on Turing's ideas. These computers can be seen as the ancestors of digital computers.
1941. Turing worked with several coworkers. Joan Clarke was one of them. The messages Turing and his coworkers deciphered were about German boats that were hunting down Allied ships.
- These Allied ships carried supplies from the US to Europe. The German boats sank more than 700 Allied ships wirh 2,3 million tons of cargo.
- These messages were harder to break than other German messages. Next to that, the deciphered messages reculted in the action being taken almost immediatly, wich made the job higher-pressured. The German boats would be sunk or circumnavigated. This saved thousands of lives.
- Turing proposed marriage to Joan Clarke. 🐸 See footnote 2 🐸
1943. Turing works with the USA to share information on cryptology to break the German codes.
1945. World War 2 ends. Turing begins to design a machine that will save data and programs.
- Turing was awarded the OBE. The OBE is the Order of the British Empire. He was rewarded for his brave wartime services, but his work remained secret for many years.
- Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). He worked on the design of the Automatic Computer Engine (ACE): a computer.
1946. Turing and his coworkers write programs for the unbuilt ACE.
1947. Turing gives the first public lectures to mention computer intelligence.
1948. Turing writes programs for the the Manchester Automatic Digital Machine (MADAM). This was the computer with the largest memory capacity in the world at that time.
- Turing and David Champernowne work on a chess program for a computer. There did not exist a computer powerful enough to play the program yet. Turing played a game in wich he acted as if he were the computer. He took half an hour per move. They called the program Turochamp. 🐸 See footnote 3 🐸
1950. Turing publishes an article called 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence'. He writes about a test/ experiment to prove that a computer can do anything a person can do, like talking with others. Computer intelligence is also called artifical intelligence (AI). This test became later known as the Turing Test. He wanted to make a standard for a machine to be called 'intelligent'. The Turing Test has a computer and a person (participant). The interrogator trys to distinguish which is the computer. The interrorgator asks questions via teletype, so that he can't see wich is the computer. The test is repeated with different people (participants). If the interrogator geusses more than they correctly indentify the computer, the computer has passed the test.
1951. Turing gives a talk about Artificial Intelligence on the BBC radio's Third Programme.
- Turing begins to study biological growth.
- His contribution to mathematics earned him membership in the Royal Society and the A.M. Turing Award.
- At the end of december. Alan Mathison Turing met Arnold Murray. Turing was 39. Arnold was 19 and unemployed. Turing invited Murray to lunch.
1952.
- At the start of january. Turing and Murray started dating.
- 23 january. Turings' house was burgled. Murray told Turing that he was acquinted with the burglar. Turing told this to the police. During the investigation, Turing told the police about his sexual relationship with Murray. Alan tought that Parliament was close to legalizing the existence of gay people, but this was not the case. Both men was arrested for 'the crime of being gay'. They were arrested for 'gross indecency'.
- Turing was still close friends with Joan Clarke. He wrote to her that he believed that he would not be sent to prison, because he tought they weren't as savage as they used to be.
- 31 March. Turings trial was held. Murray had to go through a conditionel discharge. Turing could 'choose' between improsenment or a probation. The probation would be conditonal if he would also go through a chemical catraction. He 'chose' the probation and chemical catraction. Turing lost his clearance and had to stop his code-breaking work.
- The chemical catraction was a hormonale treatment to "reduce his sex drive". Synthetic estrogen was injected into him. Oestogeen gives a body female characterisfics. The chemical catraction lasted a year. It rendered him impotent, wich means that he was not able to have children.
- His therapist said that it would be useless to try psychotherapy, wich is a therapy used to help people with a mental disorder. His psychiatrist not only said that being gay is a mental disorder (wich it's not), his psychatrist even said that his 'case' was so bad that not even psychotherapy could 'fix him'. I want to specify that I not saying that there is something wrong with people with a mental disorder nor am I saying that people with a mental disorder need to be 'fixed'. I am not knowledgable on the topic, but I think therapies and medicines do help for people with a mental disorder, but not in the sense that they need to become 'fixed' or 'cured'.
1952. Turing worked from 1952 until his death in 1954 on mathematical biology. This would now be called Artificial Life. He worked on a theory to show the chemistry of biological growth with a computer. He modelled how genes determine the anatomy of a plant or an animal.
1953. Turing publishes his paper on computer chess.
1954. Turing died of cyanide poisoning. He was found dead with a poisoned apple. The official reasin is suicide, but some people say that the English secret service killed him, because he knew too mich about the secret codes.
- His friends and biographers say that his death was an accident, because the police did not investigate wheter the apple actually contained any poisoning and it was usual for Turing to eat an apple around the time he went to bed. He had given a happy tea party four days before his death. His career was at an intellectual high. The chemical castraction and the way he was treated were awful, but his friends said that he was strong and happy.
- He had a room full of poison for his experiments. He did an experiment with elektryse: a chemical reaction where electricity is used to break down substances. He wired the electolyse experiment to the ceiling high socket. An other time, he accidentally ended up with severe electrical shocks because of an experiment. He tasted chemicals to know wich one it was. After his death, the room with poisons smelled of cyanide. It is likely that Turing inhaled cyanide gas for a certain time without noticing it, wich would have caused him to die. 🐸 See before footnote 4 🐸
- He died while in the middle of this groundbreaking work about Artifical Life. He left handwritten notes and some programs. His unfinished work is still not fully understood. 🐸 See footnote 5 🐸
{●☆●} Footnotes
🐸 Footnote 1 🐸
Turing was an atheist, because he believed that it is not logical that innocent people die. He also believed that science is more logical than religion. He did not become an atheist because he was gay. There are many people who are gay and not atheist.
🐸 Footnote 2 🐸
Joan Clark was a mathematician and cryptanalyst. Her work saved countless lives by deciphering the German enigma codes. She started to work with the GCCS in 1939, but could not recieve a full degree, because woman weren't allowed to have a full degree untill 1948. She was called a girl instead of a woman and earned less than her male coworkers. She was promoted and started to work with Turing. She got the position of a linguist, because there were no female cryptonalists. She took pride in filling forms with the line 'grade: linguist, languages: none'.
Joan Clark and Turing were coworkers. They became friends and hung out together, like going to the cinema. They had many similarities. They were outsiders, liked chess and puzzles and fought together to crack the German codes to save lives during World War 2.
1941. Turing was 29. Joan Elisabeth Lowther Clarke was 24. Turing proposed to Joan Clarke. She was surprised, but also happy and said yes. The next day he said he had 'this homosexual tendency'. She was worried, because she was sure it was 'almost certainly permanent'. A few months after being engaged, Turing broke the engagement off. Clarke and Turing remained friends untill Turing died.
Turing had internalised homophobia. He knew of his 'gay tendencies' before he proposed to her, but I assume that he found it very difficult to come out to himself, because he lived in a homophobic place. I assume he pushed the toughts down and hoped that a hetero romance would 'fix' him. Clark was worried that his homosexual 'tendency' was permanent. I assume both tought of it as a sickness. Turing had to fight against homophobia. Clarke had to fight against sexism. Dispite the hardships they faced and their failed marriage (the failure of the marriage wasn't the fault of either of them), they stayed close friends till the end.
🐸 Footnote 3 🐸
The chess program that Turing and Champernowne worked was a very important step in developing computer intelligence, but it's also a little funny. They liked playing chess, but they also liked being on their own. A computer that plays chess with you will solve that problem! But there literally is no computer intelligent enough to do that. That's fine! They wrote the program on a piece of paper. But they have to know what the computer would do. That's fine! They acted as if they were the computer by imaganing what the computer would do, wich took half an hour per move.
🐸 Footnote 4 🐸
He wired an electrical experiment to a ceiling high socket. He ended up with severe electrical shocks because of an experiment. He tasted chemicals to know wich one it was (who does that???) He had a room filled with poisons to use during experiements. He called this the 'nightmare room'. It is likely that his death was caused by not sealing a jar with cyanide (a poison) correctly wich he stored in, again, the 'nightmare room'. He was a hero. His memory deserves to be honored to honor his memory. The horrors he has been through need to be talked about with respect. But you can not tell me that this was not some Looney Tunes behaviour.
🐸 Footnote 5 🐸
Turing was a mathematical genius. During his life, he had to be carefull to hide the fact that he was gay. He died from cyanide poisiong. If his life had not been burdened with prejudice, he could have could have worked out his theory on Artifical Life further. His theory is so complicated, that it is still not fully understood.
- Artificial intelligence has had horrible effects, such as art being stolen and people's job being taken. But the concept of an intelligent computer is incredible. This concept is able to be used well, such as people being able to enjoy their life while the computer does their work. Artifical Life, the unfinished concept that Turing worked on, means that the computer is or contains a living being (such as plants or animals). To me, this is a weird concept to think about. It probably could be used well, such as learning about how a species grows or saving a dying species. But the fact that artificial intelligence has had such awfull effects does not make me believe that artificial life would have been a good idea.
- Turing learned about the horrors of war and wanted to help. He cared about innocent people who died. He spent his life trying to help others, while being afraid of people finding out that he was gay. He saved millions of lives. Even after World War 2 ended, he spent the rest of his life working on groundbreaking computer concepts and programs.
- I have searched information about the life of Alan Mathison Turing, because I wanted to learn about minories who accomplished great things, but were treated unjust because of prejudice. I have only learned about Turing, because he achieved a lot. Still, he is not defined by his achievements. He was a person. He lived a life. He liked chess, puzzles, math science and computers. His best marathon time was only 11 minutes short of the winning Olympics time of 1936 (the winning time was 2 hours and 29 minutes. The winner ran 42 kilometers aka 26 miles). Turing ran to release the stress of his work. Joan Clark shared his some of his interests and was friend till he died. He left someone who knew he was gay and still cared about him behind when he died. His older brother, who was alive after Turing's death, did not approve of Turing being gay. But he did wonder if Turing would have lived longer if he had been more considerate towards Turing. Turing was loved by many during his life and has been celebrated as a hero after his death. There are many people who have accomplished incredible things, but who have been forgotten by history. Many of them have gotten the recognisition they deserved long after they already died. Many others have never been rememberd by anyone. They were all people. They all lived lives. None of them were defined by just their accomplishments. They had stuff they enjoyed and people they cared about.
🐸 Footnote 6 🐸
Alan Turing was born in 23 June 1912. Wold War 1 was in 1912-1918. World War 2 was in 1939-1945. He died on 7 June 1954. He was 41 years old. It is 2025, so he died 71 years ago. This happend in the past and I have not used colourfull pictures, so this might seem old. Atleast I often find it hard to think of these years and numbers as real things that happend to real people who lived, laughed, loved and lost. But this is not just some old story that happend an unthinkable amount of time ago.
🐸 footnote 7 🐸
Turing was arrested. He got to 'choose' between imprisonment or a chemical castraction. He 'chose' the chemical castraction. When your options are jumping of a cliff or getting trampled by wild animals, you don't have an actual choice. Imprisonment and a chemical catraction are a different type of death, but they're still a type of death. In prison, people die from the awfull conditions and become so depressed that many kill themselve. A chemical catractions has awfull effects your body (like permanently low bone density) and the fact that your body is changed out of your control is inhumane.
🐸 Footnote 8 🐸
Turing and Murray's relationship is complicated.
- Turing (39) dated Murray (19). Turing had a sexual relationship with Murray. The power was umbalanced, because Turing was much older.
- They were hiden the fact that they were gay from everyone they knew. It must have been terrifying. They were isolated and wanted to be close to the only other person in their world that could have understood what it would have been like for them.
- I'm not sure if Murray gave consent. Murray talked with regret about his past, but not because Turing had controle or anything. It said somewhere that both gave consent, but it was vague. On the one hand, you can say that it was a different age and both gave consent, so it's fine. On the other hand, Turing was two decades older and Murray had only just become an adult, so it can't be sure that Murray's consent was really tought through and think that Turing, as the older one, shouldn't have had a sexual relationship with Murray.
- I believe that the age gap was too big, so I think that Turing was a pedophile. Many rapists get punished with imprisonment, chemical castration or the death sentence. These are all awfull punishments. Still, many rapists don't get punished, because they make the victim unable to tell about the crime or because the jury or law don't care enough about it. Still, Turing was not punished for being a rapist. Turing and Murray were punished for being gay. They were punished for existing.
Arnold Murray felt guilty about Turing's death. Murray was a musician in the sixties and later married a woman and had two children. He had a low income, wich let to conflict with his wife. I think the fact that he wasn't straight (wheter the labels gay, bi, pan or other is hard to say) also let to conflicts with his wife. I do not know how he treated her, but it's awfull that he left her and his children behind. She was a good mother and brought her two children up on her own in difficult circumstances. Afterwards, he married a second woman and had two more children. The relationship broke down. She left and took their child with her. Murray died in 1989.
{●☆●} Sources
I have not properly collected my soueces. Small checks, such as at what year someone died or what someone's full name is, are not listed. But the sites where I've collected a lot of information from are listed.
● https://tuxar.uk/turing/timeline/
● https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29840653
● https://tuxar.uk/turing/timeline/
● https://historydraft.com/story/alan-turing/holding-initial-committal-proceedings-for-the-trial/401/5239
● https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_regarding_rape
● https://biographyhost.com/p/alan-turing-biography.html
● https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/38539/whatever-happened-to-turings-friend-arnold-murray
● https://www.grunge.com/227345/the-tragic-conviction-of-alan-turing/
● https://spartacus-educational.com/Alan_Turing.htm
● https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-18561092
● https://www.bbc.com/bbcthree/article/8f3910d7-2f76-4c14-9b6e-d5f18bdce4ca
● https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/young-gay-proud-murdered-the-hairdresser-battered-to-death-1630322.html
● https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_LGBTQ_history_in_the_British_Isles