http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20571
For those who don't know who he was (or just don't want to click the link), Alan Turing was a mathematician best known for cracking the Nazis' Enigma code. It's quite possible the Allies wouldn't have won World War II without him. You would probably know him for writing "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", arguably the most important essay in the history of artificial intelligence, in which Turing gives one of the first scientific considerations to the question "Can machines think?" In that essay he also proposed what would later become the Turing test, still considered by many to be a good method to determine a true AI. Turing was later discovered to be homosexual, a felony in Britain at the time, and forced to take hormonal injections (a choice between that or prison). Turing committed suicide shortly afterwards.
Even though it was so long ago, I always feel appalled when thinking about what happened to Turing. Not only is it possible there wouldn't have been a Britain anymore without him, but he was a brilliant scientist. I've always been fascinated by robots (otherwise I wouldn't be here
) and it's a shame such a pioneer in the field of AI met such a fate.Anyway, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has issued a formal apology for Turing's mistreatment. Better late than never, I suppose. Brown has my vote (or at least he would if I was British).
