Alan Turing

[Celethiel]

I just found out that Alan Turing the mathematician and the person who beat the Ignima machine of Germany.

He was gay,

Then the police found out, forced him to recieve chemical Castration...

Then he committed suicide.

[Zombie]

It was the centenary of his birth last July when I posted a thread about him with details about his incredible work in breaking the German Enigma code during WW2, which shortened the war and saved tens of thousands of lives

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/topic/35030-alan-turing/?hl=%2Balan+%2Bturing#entry381661

Not only was he a brilliant mathematician, he is regarded as the father of modern computing. Had he not been driven to kill himself by an ungrateful and bigoted country determined to persecute him for the crime of expressing gay love, it is very possible that the history of computer development would have taken an entirely different course.

More links if you're interested

http://www.ellsbury.com/enigmabombe.htm
http://www.historyarticles.com/enigma.htm
 

 

[Tranquility]

Turing was brilliant - unfortunately, homosexual activity was illegal in the UK at the time.

 

When they had castrated him, Turing didn't so much care that his sexual drive no longer worked - but he felt that the chemical imbalance caused by the castration in his body was also affecting his brain, and that was something he couldn't make peace with.

 

They say that he injected an apple with cyanide and bit into it - that's how he committed suicide. And the same apple made an appearance later on, as tribute to possibly the greatest mind modern computing has seen: 

 

 

PS: Some say this is Newton's apple, some say it's Turing's apple. Maybe it's a tribute to both *shrugs* Frankly, the fact it's bitten kind of makes me think of the latter.

Edited May 22, 2013 by Tranquility