Alan Turing on £50 note

[Axtremus]

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/981242121/new-u-k-currency-honors-alan-turing-pioneering-computer-scientist-and-code-break

“The Bank of England has unveiled the new £50 note featuring mathematician and computer science pioneer Alan Turing, ...”

[Copper]

Don't those misogynists know this is women's history month?

[George K]

@copper said in Alan Turing on £50 note:

Don't those misogynists know this is women's history month?

OK, I LOL'ed at that one.

[Doctor Phibes]

It's funny, when I at school in Manchester, I don't think he was ever mentioned - they'd go on about the illustrious people who worked there, but not him, not even a lecture hall with his name on it. Now they've named the entire department building after him.

[Mik]

Times change. Nice to honor him posthumously but it would have been nicer to treat him like a human being while alive. This is cynical, cheap showmanship.

[Axtremus]

@mik said in Alan Turing on £50 note:

Times change. Nice to honor him posthumously but it would have been nicer to treat him like a human being while alive. This is cynical, cheap showmanship.

+1
Better to treat every one with some basic level of respect and human decency to begin with.

[Doctor Phibes]

@mik said in Alan Turing on £50 note:

Times change. Nice to honor him posthumously but it would have been nicer to treat him like a human being while alive. This is cynical, cheap showmanship.

I don't know - he got a royal pardon in 2013, which seems very late. I think one of the problems at the time was that his wartime service was completely unknown, as it was still covered by the official secrets act.

What was done to him by the British courts was of course barbaric. It puts the lie to the fact that being gay is a choice - who would choose to go through that? The good old days weren't that great for a lot of people.