History UsefulNotes / AlanTuring

* ''Codebreaker''

* ''Film/TheImitationGame'', a 2014 film starring Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, which was somewhat controversial for its supposed downplaying of Turing's sexuality while exaggerating his eccentricity and for comments its star made about people on the autistic spectrum during the promotion of the film. The young Turing in flashbacks is played by Creator/AlexLawther.

In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality, an imprisonable crime at the time, under the charge of Gross Indecency. Rather than face a prison sentence, Turing underwent chemical castration by the injection of synthetic oestrogen and lost his security clearance. He was barred from his previous position with GCHQ. In 1954, Turing was found dead; an autopsy showed the cause to be cyanide poisoning and it was ruled a suicide. Predictably speculation lingers on whether it was suicide, murder, or accident from sloppy chemical work, but the case is ambiguous enough for there to be significant doubt. Curiously a [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs half-eaten apple]] was found at the scene but was never tested for poison.

A lesser-known fact about Turing is that he was also an accomplished [[AcademicAthlete physical athlete]], a marathon-runner good enough to have had trials for the British Olympic team. This fed into his eccentricities: during the war he would travel from Bletchley to meetings in London by running.

Turing was a hero of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, devising cryptanalytical techniques, including those that cracked the ENIGMA machine, helping the Allied war effort by enabling the ''reading'' of encrypted radio messages. This confirmed information provided by other sources and even ''yielded otherwise unavailable information'' (such as the real strength of German units, which could differ from Soviet and Anglo-American estimates). After the war Turing's work constituted the foundation of twentieth century computing (for the gory details see Wiki/TheOtherWiki's articles on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine Turing machines]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecidable_problem undecidable problems]] and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Turing_thesis Church-Turing thesis]]) .

In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality, an imprisonable crime at the time, under the charge of Gross Indecency. Rather than face a prison sentence, Turing underwent chemical castration by the injection of synthetic oestrogen and lost his security clearance. He was barred from his previous position with GCHQ. In 1954, Turing was found dead; an autopsy showed the cause to be cyanide poisoning and it was ruled a suicide. Predictably speculation lingers on whether it was suicide, murder, or accident from sloppy chemical work, but the case is ambiguous enough for there to be significant doubt. Curiously a [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs half-eaten apple]] was found at the scene but was never tested for poison.

Alan Turing OBE FRS (1912-1954) was a British computer scientist. He is the TropeNamer for TuringTest, so called because he ''invented it''. [[note]] He didn't name it that, though; in his 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" he refers to it as an "imitation game". [[/note]]

* ''Film/TheImitationGame'', a 2014 film starring Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, which was somewhat controversial for its supposed downplaying of Turing's sexuality while exaggerating his eccentricity and for comments its star made about people on the Autistic spectrum during the promotion of the film. The young Turing in flashbacks is played by Creator/AlexLawther.

The British government in response to a successful petition officially apologized for the way he was treated in 2009, and he received a royal pardon on Christmas Eve, 2013. Very rare in the British justice system, which normally handles such cases by other means, this is only the fourth use of the royal prerogative of mercy granted since WWII.

A lesser-known fact about Turing is that he was also an accomplished physical athlete, a marathon-runner good enough to have had trials for the British Olympic team. This fed into his eccentricities: during the war he would travel from Bletchley to meetings in London by running.

* ''Film/TheImitationGame'', a 2014 film staring Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, which was somewhat controversial for its supposed downplaying of Turing's sexuality while exaggerating his eccentricity and for comments its star made about people on the Autistic spectrum during the promotion of the film.

Turing was a hero of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, devising cryptanalytical techniques, including those that cracked the ENIGMA machine, helping the Allied war effort by enabling the ''reading'' of encrypted radio messages. This confirmed information provided by other sources and even ''yielded otherwise unavailable information'' (such as the real strength of German units, which could differ from Soviet and Anglo-American estimates). After the war Turing's work constituted the foundation of twentieth century computing (for the gory details see TheOtherWiki's articles on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine Turing machines]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecidable_problem undecidable problems]] and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Turing_thesis Church-Turing thesis]]) .

Turing was a hero of UsefulNotes/{{WWII}}, devising cryptanalytical techniques, including those that cracked the ENIGMA machine, helping the Allied war effort by enabling the ''reading'' of encrypted radio messages. This confirmed information provided by other sources and even ''yielded otherwise unavailable information'' (such as the real strength of German units, which could differ from Soviet and Anglo-American estimates). After the war Turing's work constituted the foundation of twentieth century computing (for the gory details see TheOtherWiki's articles on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine Turing machines]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecidable_problem undecidable problems]] and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Turing_thesis Church-Turing thesis]]) .

* ''Film/TheImitationGame'', a 2014 film staring Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, which was somewhat controversial for its supposed downplaying of Turing's sexuality and for comments its star made about people on the Autistic spectrum during the promotion of the film.

* In ''Literature/TheLaundrySeries'' magic is done by [[FormulaicMagic solving certain types of math problems]]. Turing stumbled upon this when he solved the Turing / Creator/HPLovecraft theorem. He was then KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade by the eponymous Laundry, the British [[TheMenInBlack Men In Black]] who deal with the occult. The Laundry soon afterwards realized how bloody ''stupid'' they'd been, since they could have recruited Turing instead and reaped the benefits of his brilliance. Ever since they've made it their policy to recruit anyone who stumbles upon truth.