#computer
30 Days of Pride Day 11- Alan Turing
Alan Turing was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist, considered the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was influential in the invention of the Bombe, which worked to decipher Enigma Machine-encrypted messages from the Germans during World War Two. His work gave the Allies the edge they needed to win the war in Europe, and provided the foundations for the eventual creation of the computer.
Turing died in 1954, aged just 41, two years after being outed as gay. Homosexuality was still a crime in Great Britain at the time, and Turing was convicted of “indecency,” required to undergo chemical castration.
Following a public campaign in 2009, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way [Turing] was treated”. Queen Elizabeth II granted a posthumous pardon in 2013. The term “Alan Turing law” is now used informally to refer to a 2017 law in the United Kingdom that retroactively pardoned men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.
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