Turing first trained as a mathematician at King’s College of Cambridge University, UK. Turing’s work can be divided into three chronological phases - mathematics, code-breaking, and artificial intelligence. He was and remains, as they say, difficult to decode. His contradictions are perhaps evidence of his fertile mind, but also present a man difficult to reconcile into a single characterization. He tragically killed himself with cyanide when he was just 41 years old, the reasons for which are still unclear. He invented one of the core concepts of theoretical computer science (the Turing machine), while also building practical computing machines that helped crack the Enigma code – an accomplishment that would remain secret for many years after.
He was, at once, a war hero who was largely unrecognized during his lifetime, as well as a man convicted of “gross indecency” with another man and forced to undergo organotherapy, or chemical castration.
His work spanned many disciplines: mathematics, cryptography, biology, and most famously, the early development of artificial intelligence. The lines from The Normal Heart, though more political statements than historical facts, capture Turing’s contradictory and boundary-crossing nature. Despite this, the general public remains largely unaware of his life or his contributions to science and society. Why don’t they teach any of this in schools? If they did… maybe you wouldn’t be so terrified of who you are.” – Ned Weeks in Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (1984), a play that depicted the gay community’s transition into a more socially conscious, politically organized group.Īlan Turing’s shadow quietly looms large in the history of computer science, and his story is increasingly cited as an illustration of injustices faced by the gay community. “Bruce, did you know that it was an openly gay Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning the Second World War? His name was Alan Turing and he cracked the Germans’ Enigma code so the Allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do – and when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay.
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