His speech was on 15 May 1951 and was
entitled “Can Digital Computers Think?” Alan shared
that “the whole thinking process is still rather
mysterious to us, but I believe that the attempt to make
a thinking machine will help us greatly in finding out
how we think ourselves.”
The next moment of significance in Alan’s
post-war years was his ‘crime’ i.e. his homosexual affair.
Turing revealed his homosexuality during the
interrogation in the police after a burglary in his house
and immediately after that in a number of personal
letters. Alan expressed the responsibility in his character
when he wrote to a politician about the state of the law
regarding homosexuals. He was charged as an enemy of
social order. That is why he had to undergo a
humiliating hormone therapy. His probation period
ended in 1953. On the evening of 7 June 1954, he killed
himself. The pathologist who did the post-mortem
identified the cause of death as cyanide poisoning.
Alan Mathison Turing was an outstanding
scientist who differed from his fellow scientists and
from most people around him, and was ahead of his
time. His amazing achievements have made the world a
better place to live in.
e Twinning 2016
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