Story time:
I started taking my kid skiing when he was six, the drive is about 45 mins each way so after the second of third trip he asked me to tell him a story while in the car.
I started telling him all stories I knew but sooner than later ran out, so I started summarizing books and movies I had seen and at some point The Imitation Game came up.
My son was amazed how this man, through just intelligence and dedication was able to accomplish so much. The story stuck with him and a few days later he asked me, in front of his 4 year old sister, what award was given to Turing for such a big accomplishment.
Without thinking ahead, my sarcastic ass just blurted out, “well, the gov discovered he was gay and threw him in jail”. To this, my son follows up with “what’s gay?”
So I straightened my thoughts a bit not to fumble this one and said, in the most neutral tone I can muster, “usually boys like girls and girls like boys, but sometimes boys like boys and girls like girls, and that is called being gay”
My son think about this for like 5 seconds and then replies “that’s not something to go to jail for!” and my daughter completes “jail is for people that are dangerous to other people”
Right then and there I knew we are definitely not born the horrible people we sometimes become… it is ALL taught and learned through life. The best shot I have to make a difference in the world is to not screw up my kids.
PS: ski story time had continued until today. I now have to read new books to tell while we go skiing or any other long road trip. I really love it and it had turned my kids into big readers… specially my daughter who has almost turned into The Paper
Explanation: One of the key scientists in the construction of early codebreaking computers in WW2 was Alan Turing (yes, of Turing Test fame), a gay man. While it was not immediately after WW2, in the 1950s, he inadvertently admitted to a cop that he was homosexual when being interviewed about a burglary at his house (cops, even on the occasions they are useful, are NOT your friends). His key work in defeating the literal fucking Nazis was disregarded in favor of chemically castrating him after he pled guilty to the charge.
It is suspected that this was a major cause of his subsequent suspected suicide by biting into a cyanide-laced apple (though some still hold that the apple incident was an accident).
He lived and taught at the university in my city, Manchester and we have an Alan Turing way (a road) named after him.
This city remembers how he was wronged by the government.
disregarded in favor of chemically castrating him after he pled guilty to the charge.
Huh. Fucking awful, but like, why chemically castrate someone who’s gay? They’re unlikely to have kids (unless they’re bi/pan/etc.), so like, why? On the off chance they did decide to have a kid, who would that affect. Were they afraid of spreading “The Gay™️” to their children via DNA? If anything they should’ve prayed and hoped his mental genius would pass onto his kids.
Fucking atrocious…
Chemical castration uses drugs to suppress the libido.
The drugs for doing so at the time were also horrendous so it was absolutely life ruining
I’m not an expert, but I imagine it also fucks your sexdrive up so you’re “cured” of the urges.
At the time Turing (arguably) killed himself, the “Ultra” project was still a state secret that nobody publicly knew anything about. However, people like Churchill did know all about it and they knew exactly the magnitude of Turing’s contribution to it, and yet they did nothing to defend Turing although they could have without revealing the Ultra secrets. Absolutely shameful.
His story always angers me so much. Like, dude just wanted to live and do math, can’t you fucking let him?
NO. He will do MATHS or nothing.
With the exception of sums. He had a licence for those too.
1+0 = ok
1+1 = straight to jail
He did the math. They did not let him :(
Let’s also mention that Alan Turing was absolutely brilliant, mind bogglingly so.
Wasn’t it more so that his work was still highly classified rather than actively disregarded? There were definitely those that could have intervened that didn’t though. Really shameful
Allegedly also the Apple logo is derived from that.
Didn’t it come from the Beatles? But the Turing story would be nicer.
I had heard the same, that the bite from the poisoned apple inspired the Apple logo, though it could be apochryphal.
It wasn’t disregarded; it was never mentioned because it was still a state secret.
So WTF does queer mean?! Our man was simply gay, homosexual, we have words for that. That’s a sincere question BTW. As an old cis guy, “queer” seems to mean whatever the fuck people want it to mean, seen a few definitions. Somebody help?
I personally use queer as a shorthand for lgbtqia+ because saying that in conversation is a bit unwieldy
Then the math breaks
Q = lgbtQia+
0 = - Q + lgbtQia
0 = -Q(lgbtia - 1)
So lgbtia = 1 or Q = 0
Fair enough. But lgbtqia+?! Can we not see how confusing are arbitrary these words and meanings and acronyms are?
Imma roll with LGBT. Good enough, covers everyone, at least close enough.
Lgbtqia+ isn’t any more arbitrary than lgbt if you take the 5 minutes to google what it means.
Honestly, using queer is probably better than lgbt because that includes the Asexuals and Intersex people, which is what the a and i are representing.
The terms are getting more and more complicated because we finally allowed people to not be conformant with the norms. So we are in the process of discovering new identities that shouldn’t be unrepresented over the years, which obviously makes talking about this more complex but also allows us to be more accurate.
My definition is any group that typically was targeted by the slur “queer” in the past would be covered by the queer umbrella. The slur was generally used against minority sexual orientations and gender identities, or in other words any trait or behavior that is not “normal” for heterosexuals or “normal” for man/woman, but isn’t limited to well defined groups. For example, a cisgender heterosexual man who liked to dress in women’s clothing would be considered queer by those who use it as a slur. They are not LGBT, but if they identified as Queer that would make sense to me.
It’s not hard to learn for people who like learning about the world, is only hard for people who think understanding other people is a burden.
Like the other person said, these days queer is usually used as a sort of catch-all for any one not cisgendered and straight, although sometimes people identify as simply queer if they don’t feel they fit neatly in any of the predefined lgbt+ etc categories.
or even if they do fit neatly and they just don’t want to explain their specifics (because it can be wicked burdensome/gets old/folks want you to justify your identity)
Drag can definitely understand why someone with an identity like drag’s wouldn’t broadcast it. A lot of people on the right wing feel enraged when they see someone with a weird identity, and they get the cause and effect mixed around and think the identity is designed to make them angry, so they call drag a troll. One guy even sexually harassed himself with an alt account and tried to convince people drag made the alt, and people believed it for a few months before he started using the same trick on everyone else he disagreed with.
Turing didn’t start coding until 1948 though. His war work didn’t involve computers, rather the electro-mechanical Bombe devices.
youre telling me a queer electro-mechanical bombe deviced this
Their apology is worth exactly the paper it’s printed on, interesting.
Well… if the paper is worth what it says on it, then it’s about 18 billion pound sterling in total for all the 50 notes printed.
I’m glad he’s on money but something more often seen would have been better. Although with inflation the 50 might be the new 20
I did not know they did this although to be honest I can’t remember the last time I saw a bank of England note never mind a 50
“The Immitation Game” is well worth a watch.
As one historian remarked, WW2 happened, and Turing was alive and working on something at Bletchley at the time. Everything else in that film utter bollocks.
Do you mean that a team in charge of reverse engineering didn’t make the decisions on how the whole allied military should act after decrypting one message? Impossible!
It’s a horrific character assassination.
The only two things it gets right are: there was a second world war; Alan Turing worked at Bletchley.
Why would i watch an immitation when I could watch the original instead?
The Original Game?
The Game (1997) maybe?
Wait… did I just lose The Game?
If you know to ask you lost long ago. :)
And Cryptonomicon is well worth a read.
Hell, yeah my friend recommended that to me after I told him I had just started snow crash and I was loving the fuck out of it
Snow Crash is so weird. It’s great. If you want another one along the same lines as far as zaniness goes you should read The Big U.
Cryptonomicon and the System of the World trilogy and Reamde and Anathem and the rest of them are more serious (but probably also better works objectively (but there’s nothing wrong with the fun ones)).
Alan Turing is in Cryptonomicon though, also the whole book is excellent. I’m due for a reread.
I second that
Very much so. I watched it back when benedict cumberbatch was The Guy, and it was more than i expected. It may have radicalised me a bit haha
Similar for me. I saw Cumberbatch and a name that seemed to suggest a wild mystery or fantasy and immediately watched it. I was not prepared for the story that unfolded
Bible humpers now: STOP FORCEFULLY FEMINIZING MEN
Bible humpers back then:
Alan! Alan!
What’s up?
