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Alan Turing receives Royal pardon

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  Alan Turing receives Royal pardon Geoff Wearmouth <gwearmouth@gmail.com> - 2013-12-23 18:45 -0800
    Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon "Brian Gaff" <Briang1@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2013-12-24 14:58 +0000
    Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon greenaum@gmail.com (greenaum) - 2014-06-02 17:52 +0000
      Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon Andrew Owen <aowen10@mail.bbk.ac.uk> - 2014-06-02 23:27 +0100
        Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon Duncan Snowden <duncan_s@talktalk.net> - 2014-06-03 19:18 +0100
          Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon greenaum@gmail.com (greenaum) - 2014-06-08 21:32 +0000
            Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon Guesser <alistair@alistairsserver.no-ip.org> - 2014-06-08 22:40 +0100
            Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon "dott.Piergiorgio" <chiedetelo@ask.me> - 2014-06-09 07:33 +0200
      Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> - 2014-06-03 08:07 +0100
        Re: Alan Turing receives Royal pardon greenaum@gmail.com (greenaum) - 2014-06-08 21:23 +0000
    Alan Turing receives Royal pardon Geoff Wearmouth <gwearmouth@gmail.com> - 2014-06-03 11:16 -0700

#2690 — Alan Turing receives Royal pardon

Sticking to the news embargo, The Register has posted the news that code breaker and computer designer, Alan Turing has received a Royal Pardon on Christmas Eve.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/24/turing_pardoned/

"There's a strong argument to be made that without Turing's efforts, and those of his many wartime collaborators, many of us might not be free to enjoy the season. Closer to home, The Register would almost certainly not exist but for his genius."

The ZX Spectrum would likewise not exist without his genius.

-- 
G.

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#2691

Those were uninformed days ruled, no doubt by the mutterings of the Church, 
bit ironic actually.

Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"Geoff Wearmouth" <gwearmouth@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:9b2d67ea-7cff-416a-a10f-b1995eab774e@googlegroups.com...
> Sticking to the news embargo, The Register has posted the news that code 
> breaker and computer designer, Alan Turing has received a Royal Pardon on 
> Christmas Eve.
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/12/24/turing_pardoned/
>
> "There's a strong argument to be made that without Turing's efforts, and 
> those of his many wartime collaborators, many of us might not be free to 
> enjoy the season. Closer to home, The Register would almost certainly not 
> exist but for his genius."
>
> The ZX Spectrum would likewise not exist without his genius.
>
> -- 
> G. 

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#2904

Sure he's thrilled.

-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There's nothing like eating hay when you're faint," the White King remarked to Alice, as he munched away. 
"I should think throwing cold water over you would be better," Alice suggested: "--or some sal-volatile." 
"I didn't say there was nothing better," the King replied. "I said there was nothing like it."
Which Alice did not venture to deny. 

                    

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#2907

On 02/06/2014 18:52, greenaum wrote:
> Sure he's thrilled.

If they're going to pardon him they should pardon everyone inlcuding 
those still alive with a criminal record. Which is precisely why they 
didn't previously pardon him. It would cost money to process all those 
convictions.

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#2915

On Mon, 02 Jun 2014 23:27:58 +0100
Andrew Owen <aowen10@mail.bbk.ac.uk> wrote:

> On 02/06/2014 18:52, greenaum wrote:
> > Sure he's thrilled.
> 
> If they're going to pardon him they should pardon everyone inlcuding 
> those still alive with a criminal record. Which is precisely why they 
> didn't previously pardon him. It would cost money to process all
> those convictions.

Kind of, yes.

There was an interview with one of the guys who campaigned to get his
conviction overturned back in January's Linux Format, who said that you
won't actually find anyone in Turing's family supporting a pardon.

The reason being that as a result of their campaign, *anyone* can have a
conviction under the pre-1968 Gross Indecency law erased from the
record, on demand. It's not a formal Pardon, but the criminal record is
cleared, and everyone is treated equally. But piecemeal campaigns for
formal Royal Pardons put famous people, people with a big enough
following to mount such a campaign, above everyone else: Turing can get
a Pardon, so can Oscar Wilde, but your uncle who never married (and
there was all that nasty business with the chap in Brighton), he can't.

-- 
Duncan Snowden.

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#2930

On Tue, 3 Jun 2014 19:18:23 +0100, Duncan Snowden
<duncan_s@talktalk.net> sprachen:

>There was an interview with one of the guys who campaigned to get his
>conviction overturned back in January's Linux Format, who said that you
>won't actually find anyone in Turing's family supporting a pardon.
>
>The reason being that as a result of their campaign, *anyone* can have a
>conviction under the pre-1968 Gross Indecency law erased from the
>record, on demand. It's not a formal Pardon, but the criminal record is
>cleared, and everyone is treated equally

That's really interesting. And a victory of sorts, since all the
people who did nothing wrong are now formally "innocent". Of course I
imagine that also includes some who actually harmed people. To sort
out the difference would need all the cases re-opening and trying
again, and there's bound to be hardly any relevant evidence left, not
least since witnesses tend to forget things and die.

> But piecemeal campaigns for
>formal Royal Pardons put famous people, people with a big enough
>following to mount such a campaign, above everyone else: Turing can get
>a Pardon, so can Oscar Wilde, but your uncle who never married (and
>there was all that nasty business with the chap in Brighton), he can't.

I was gonna ask why not. But I see what you mean. You can get
de-guilted, but still go fuck yourself as far as HM Queen's concerned.
Same way she's concerned with everyone else, one should think. 

In a way I think they should've let it stand. The Queen's got no right
to "take back" abuses she perpetrated, nor have the courts and
governments that represent her. An innocent bloke was massively
harmed, after very arguably being one of a few men who knocked years
off WWII and prevented millions of deaths. And for doing no harm to
anybody.

That makes the Queen and her minions evil fascists, with no better
reason for persecuting people than Hitler had. It's somehow more
admirable that Hitler didn't try to apologise, he wasn't expecting the
forgiveness HM Govt are expecting after "correcting" this "error".


-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There's nothing like eating hay when you're faint," the White King remarked to Alice, as he munched away. 
"I should think throwing cold water over you would be better," Alice suggested: "--or some sal-volatile." 
"I didn't say there was nothing better," the King replied. "I said there was nothing like it."
Which Alice did not venture to deny. 

                    

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#2933

On 08/06/2014 22:32, greenaum wrote:
> That's really interesting. And a victory of sorts, since all the
> people who did nothing wrong are now formally "innocent".

Surely they did "do something wrong". It's just that we're 
retro-actively redefining it as not wrong?

The people in the past are always the barbarians who oppressed anyone 
different to them, and people in the present are always the just and 
moral ones who only oppress the people who deserve it...

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#2939

Il 08/06/2014 23:32, greenaum ha scritto:
> In a way I think they should've let it stand. The Queen's got no right
> to "take back" abuses she perpetrated, nor have the courts and
> governments that represent her. An innocent bloke was massively
> harmed, after very arguably being one of a few men who knocked years
> off WWII and prevented millions of deaths. And for doing no harm to
> anybody.
>
> That makes the Queen and her minions evil fascists, with no better
> reason for persecuting people than Hitler had. It's somehow more
> admirable that Hitler didn't try to apologise, he wasn't expecting the
> forgiveness HM Govt are expecting after "correcting" this "error".

I can point that the relevant dates are *prior* of the 6th February 1952 ?

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

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#2909

Bloody hypocrisy revealed. I mean, I spoke to a person who lived across the 
road from him for a while and he said he was a normal if a little deep sort 
of chap.
 Strange world we live in.
 Brian

-- 
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is  active
"greenaum" <greenaum@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:538cb977.3457390@news.eternal-september.org...
> Sure he's thrilled.
>
> -- 
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "There's nothing like eating hay when you're faint," the White King 
> remarked to Alice, as he munched away.
> "I should think throwing cold water over you would be better," Alice 
> suggested: "--or some sal-volatile."
> "I didn't say there was nothing better," the King replied. "I said there 
> was nothing like it."
> Which Alice did not venture to deny.
>
> 

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#2929

On Tue, 3 Jun 2014 08:07:11 +0100, "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com>
sprachen:

>Bloody hypocrisy revealed. I mean, I spoke to a person who lived across the 
>road from him for a while and he said he was a normal if a little deep sort 
>of chap.
> Strange world we live in.

World full of idiot ants bringing down, er I dunno, a nice horse, or
something. Beautiful horses plagued by horseflies. Yup. WTF should a
"moralist" be allowed to tell Turing ANYTHING about how to live his
life? Turing was superior, both for his brains, and for living a life
without harrassing, annoying, or harming anyone. All more than you
could say for most judges, politicians, and police-persons. 

He had tastes slightly contrary to those of the masses, the same
masses that bring us Pop Idol in the modern day, Daily Mail readers,
and whatever other horrible nonsense "normal" people get up to.
Because the masses decided this bothered them, by the same reasoning
they use for every other stupid aspect of their stupid lives, he was
ordered to take pills that made him impotent and unable to think
clearly. For a queer genius, sex and thinking would be two things he'd
be fond of, I imagine. 

Monsters, the lot of em. 

I've got my faults, but I don't claim the right to interfere in
people's private business, or tell grown adults what to do.

-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There's nothing like eating hay when you're faint," the White King remarked to Alice, as he munched away. 
"I should think throwing cold water over you would be better," Alice suggested: "--or some sal-volatile." 
"I didn't say there was nothing better," the King replied. "I said there was nothing like it."
Which Alice did not venture to deny. 

                    

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#2911

"The ZX Spectrum would likewise not exist without his genius"

I've always found that the ZX Spectrum embodied Turing's ideas of minimal simplicity.

The ROM author was very young when Turing died but both his parents, gifted mathematicians, had been selected to work with Alan Turing. His father was his lunchtime companion who became manager of the source code. His mother was promoted to Experimental Officer at NPL. The computer they programmed using Turing's machine codes was capable of much greater floating point precision than the Spectrum and in 1949 became the World's fastest.

In other respects it was similar but their computer was not so tiny.

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