[HN Gopher] Alan Turing in America
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Alan Turing in America
Author : privatdozent
Score : 40 points
Date : 2021-07-12 18:03 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.privatdozent.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.privatdozent.co)
| beardyw wrote:
| This is such a fascinating insight. I didn't know this part of
| his story.
|
| Turing was a complex character as most brilliant people are.
|
| It saddens me what happened to him, but we must recognise that
| our children's children will be appalled at things we
| (collectively) stand by and approve of.
| JohnTHaller wrote:
| "Beyond the way they speak, there is only one (no two!) features
| of American life which I find really tiresome. The impossibility
| of getting a bath in the ordinary sense and their ideas on room
| temperature" -- Alan Turing (1936)
|
| I'm familiar with the difference in 'room temperature' between
| here and the UK, but not what the idea of 'getting a bath in the
| ordinary sense' is. Anyone know?
| zabzonk wrote:
| Showers rather than baths, perhaps?
| davidw wrote:
| Doesn't mention his chance meeting with Lawrence Waterhouse.
| adventured wrote:
| > I would not like the journey, and I detest America.
|
| Given the context it's rather fascinating how many negative
| things he has to say about the US. So he goes home to a land he
| prefers, a supposed land of superior civility and culture, and
| his own people torture and de facto murder him.
| dang wrote:
| Please don't take HN threads into flamewar, let alone
| nationalistic flamewar. We're trying for something better than
| this here.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
|
| Edit: we've had to ask you this kind of thing a shocking number
| of times before. Would you please stop posting like this to HN?
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| > his own people torture and de facto murder him
|
| In reality, this is a matter of considerable debate. The
| chemical castration period ended fourteen months before his
| death. The official inquest into his death ruled that he had
| committed suicide by consuming a cyanide-laced apple.
|
| Jack Copeland, an editor of volumes of Turing's work and
| Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing,
| has suggested that Turing's death may have been accidental,
| caused by the cyanide fumes produced by an experiment in his
| spare room, and that the coroner's investigation was poorly
| conducted.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > The official inquest into his death ruled that he had
| committed suicide by consuming a cyanide-laced apple.
|
| So the crown ruled his death a suicide, the same crown that
| tortured him and forced him into chemical castration.
|
| And we're supposed to believe that.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| You do understand that if Turing killed himself
| accidentally, that's _good_ for the "crown"? (The British
| government is not "the crown".)
|
| They would have no reason to cover up an accidental death,
| so I'm not sure why you've suddenly flipped your viewpoint
| here. Not everything is a conspiracy.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > The British government is not "the crown".
|
| Who's the head of the British Government?
|
| > You do understand that if Turing killed himself
| accidentally, that's good for the "crown"?
|
| Yes. And strangely, that's what the crown's report said.
| thewakalix wrote:
| Suicide is, by definition, not an accident.
| bidirectional wrote:
| The head of the British government is Boris Johnson.
| bidirectional wrote:
| Homosexuality was illegal in the US at the time, so I really
| cannot see your point.
| zabzonk wrote:
| My Dad shook the hand of Turing when Turing was working at
| Manchester University, after the war. Dad was a good-looking
| rugby player who was interested in logic - I don't think he
| understood (at least at the time) why Turing was interested in
| him! Later on his own security clearance as a V-bomber captain
| might have been compromised, so he only talked about it to the
| family.
|
| So I have shaken the hand that shook the hand of Alan Turing.
| Which always makes me smile, and is my single claim to fame.
| jccc wrote:
| Is there more detail to the story, or could it have been simply
| a common interest in logic and the like? As a gay man I can
| assure you that we aren't attracted to every allegedly good-
| looking male.
|
| (I really don't mean this to be snarky, but I know forum posts
| have a way of making it seem that way.)
| jshier wrote:
| According to the biography on which the movie "The Imitation
| Game" was (very loosely) based ("Alan Turing: The Enigma"),
| Turing was rather direct when expressing interest in the men
| he knew. Much more so than I would expect for that time.
| There were several times where he straight up propositioned
| acquaintances. So it wouldn't entirely surprise me if there
| was an actual expression of interest in the original story.
| jccc wrote:
| Of course it's quite possible that's what Turing was doing
| in this case. I'm not saying it wasn't.
|
| My gentle objection from long experience is that gay men's
| motivations are so very often over-sexualized by people who
| are not gay men. Without good situational evidence, it's
| not a good idea to make that assumption.
| zabzonk wrote:
| Of course, neither I nor my (late, so I can't ask him) Dad
| knows what Turing's motivations were.
|
| These are just my possibly incorrect assumptions, following
| later conversations.
|
| V-force security checks were however a real thing when it
| came to homosexuality, and to certain extent heterosexuality
| - V-force liked nice, safe married couples with kids - but
| they certainly didn't always get them.
| 3dbrows wrote:
| I am two handshakes removed both from John von Neumann and Alan
| Turing (via different people) and wish even 0.001% of their
| genius was thereby transmissible.
|
| There are plenty of people still alive with handshake distances
| of 1 or 0, however, if we're making a metric out of that.
| zabzonk wrote:
| None of the genius is transmissible, but perhaps some of the
| joy is.
| 3dbrows wrote:
| Yes. It's a nice anecdote to have :)
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Shaking the hand of Tesla could be a hair raising
| experience!
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| > The impossibility of getting a bath in the ordinary sense
|
| What's the problem getting a bath in America in the 1930's vs the
| UK? I'm confused.
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