Alan Mathison Turing (1923-1954) was an English mathematician, logician, and computer scientist who, during World War II, cracked the Nazi secret code. Additionally, he created one of the first computers that gave birth to the machines we know today. He made computers programmable, meaning they could be used for various tasks by changing the program.
In his genius, he adopted the early concepts of modern computing and gave birth to what we now call “artificial intelligence.” He was one of the most influential codebreakers of World War II; his cryptology provided intelligence that helped accelerate the Allies’ victory.
In his work Entscheidungsproblem, which means an effective method for solving problems, he invented the universal Turing machine, which involved the logical principles of the digital computer.
However, upon his death, many of his secret wartime achievements remained classified, far from public view in a nation consumed by Cold War security concerns. On the contrary, according to the narrow standards of his time, his reputation was tarnished.
Alan’s life was very short because his sexual orientation was not accepted at the time. He was homosexual, and when the authorities discovered this, they took him to a clinic where he underwent chemical castration in an attempt to make him “reconsider.” He knew this wasn’t possible, even if he tried. For this reason, access to Bletchley Park, where he had worked during World War II, was denied to him. It is said that he committed suicide a year after leaving the clinic.
On June 7, 1954, the British mathematician, now recognized as one of the most innovative and powerful thinkers of the 20th century — sometimes called the father of modern computing — died as a criminal, having been convicted under Victorian laws for his homosexuality and forced to undergo chemical castration. Britain only began to take its first steps toward the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967. It wasn’t until 2009 that the government apologized for his treatment.
“We are sorry, you deserved so much better,” said then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. “Alan and the thousands of other gay men who were convicted, like him, under homophobic laws, were treated terribly.”
Today, Turing is recognized in his own country and by the broader scientific community as a pillar of achievement who fused genius and eccentricity, who navigated the esoteric fields of mathematics and cryptography comfortably but awkwardly in social contexts, and who was belittled by the hostile society in which he was born.
Since 1966, there has been the ACM A.M. Turing Award, an annual prize awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery “for major and lasting technical contributions to the field of computing.” It is the highest honor in computing and is recognized as the Nobel Prize of computing.