If you are reading this on some kind of computer device - which you most likely are - take a moment to thank Alan Turing, who died on this day 62 years ago.
Turing was the subject of the Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game, about his time deciphering Nazi codes during World War II, but his legacy and work have had an impact that extends far beyond his wartime efforts - and given that his work during the war helped save over 14 million people, that’s pretty astounding.
The vast majority of us still rely on his other seminal contributions, everyday.
Who was he?
Alan Turing was a British mathematician, often called the father of modern computer science. His notions and work form the basis of today’s computer science, cognitive science, and ideas about artificial intelligence.
Alan Turing—a pioneer of modern computing—died #onthisday 1954 https://t.co/VpSwg1WMlZpic.twitter.com/4ZNr8ZFwt6
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 7, 2016
Despite the risks of being a gay man in an era when homosexuality was criminalized, Turing was open with his sexuality among friends and family. In 1952 after reporting a burglary (committed by an acquaintance of his lover’s), Turing was charged with “gross indecency.” He refused to refute the accusations (of homosexuality) made against him during his prosecution. He was unapologetically himself, and added that “he thought that this shouldn’t be against the law.” Ultimately, he was given a choice between imprisonment and chemical castration, and chose the latter (chemical castration is a hormonal therapy intended to reduce sexual drive, used in some countries today to punish repeat rapists and pedophiles).
He remained committed to his work until being deemed a “security risk” prevented him from continuing on government projects.
On June 7, 1954, Turing was found dead in his home after eating an apple laced with cyanide, which has largely been considered suicide.
What did he do?
Beyond creating a machine to crack Nazi codes, Turing created the Universal Machine (also known as the Turing Machine) in 1936 - without which I would not have a computer on which to write this, and you would not have a device on which to read this. Turing’s invention is not only the foundation of modern computer science, but computers themselves. Our computers today are really just systems of Turing Machines.
The Turing Machine isn’t actually a machine at all, but rather an idea. The Turing Machine is a model of a computational device that follows a given set of rules to digest information and perform actions (this is how your computer reads all those 1’s and 0’s). Turing actually began by distilling human thought processes down to the process of basic logical reasoning. Essentially, the machine understands rules and uses logic like humans do.
The idea that machines could use logic or “think” captivated Turing. If a human can follow rules to do a task and a machine can be programmed to do the same yielding the same results, what makes their processes different? This is actually where the film The Imitation Game gets its name.
The “imitation game,” or Turing Test, was the standard Turing hoped to use to test a machine’s mind. Basically, Turing believed that if machines were thinking, then when they are given a task their responses should be indistinguishable from human responses (by another human). The Turing Test is often used today to benchmark just how smart artificial intelligence is. If a machine can trick a human into believing they are talking to another human over a computer, then it’s considered to have passed the Turing Test and be a significant achievement -- though in truth Turing only intended the “game” to be a test of whether or not a machine could emulate human thinking, not pretend to be a human. So, fret not because we’re not trying to make Blade Runner a reality.
Why haven’t I heard of him?
Because of the nature of Turing’s work, personal life, and the political climate of his time, his accomplishments went unrecognized for many years. His work decoding Nazi messages during World War II was considered classified until the 70’s, while his sexuality and ideas about machine intelligence were seen as a threat to organized religion and so were not promoted.
Alan Turing died #otd in 1954 after pioneering the field of theoretical computing: https://t.co/Y2LQfEhbxHpic.twitter.com/3yBbgRCmav
— CSAIL at MIT (@MIT_CSAIL) June 7, 2016
Today, his achievements are much more-widely regarded. The A.M. Turing Award (akin to the Nobel Prize for computer science) is named for him, and his legacy lives on in every computer out there. The release of The Imitation Game last year prompted renewed interest in Turing’s story and helped garner support for a petition to pardon the 49,000 gay men who have been convicted of “gross indecency” in Britain - 15,000 of whom are still alive. Though Turing was pardoned by the Queen in 2013, his family supported the petition and helped deliver it to the Parliament last year.
Sadly, these men have yet to be pardoned. Turing said it best himself, “we can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
Though we now recognize the importance of his many contributions, and acknowledge the injustices he experienced, there’s still have a long way to go in making reparations for the wrongful treatment of others and preventing such treatment from recurring.
“Homosexual acts” were decriminalized in the UK in 1967, but they remain illegal in 76 other countries (ie. Egypt, Iran, and Singapore). In countries like Russia, even though being gay is no longer criminal, people can still be imprisoned or punished for non-heterosexual displays.
People around the world are being ostracized and persecuted for identities and beliefs, even physical traits that don’t fit the “norm.” But we, as society, create these norms, and we have the power to change them for the better.