# History fact check-What were you taught about Alan Turing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067 "2025-03-25T00:50:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/21 "2025-03-25T01:48:29Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’m pretty sure I did encounter his name in some capacity (Turing test? Turing machines?) in college, perhaps in a computer science or cognitive psychology class. Similarly, I first learned of Turing (other than the name and use of the Turing test in scifi I read) in a college cognitive psych class, which touched on his history and sexuality _briefly_. This would have been 1992-1996 or so. Otherwise, a bit more from the very fictionalized variant seen in the novel _[Cryptonomicon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon)_ and other fiction, with a bit of internet research on the side. Otherwise, yes, my highschool history stopped prior to the Korean war for the US, and “World” History was at least 80-90% European and stopped prior to WW2 overall. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/22 "2025-03-25T01:50:34Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > What I don’t understand is why leadership of the British government/national security community who knew the importance of what he had done didn’t have a quiet word with the prosecutors to drop the charges against Turing. They were probably bigots themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/23 "2025-03-25T02:20:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When you went to junior high and/or high school, What (if anything) were you taught about Alan Turing? Absolutely nothing whatsoever. Which doesn’t remotely suprise me, seeing how little importance computers still had at the time. The single computer-related class I had in 16 years of schooling was a semester of BASIC programming on Apple II computers, and even that didn’t make any mention of the history of computing. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/24 "2025-03-25T02:24:28Z")
To the best of my recollection – which is admittedly feeble – I don’t think I learned about Alan Turing until computer science classes in college. And since the focus was computer science, nothing was said about his sexuality or his persecution under British law at the time. I think I learned about that independently much later. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/25 "2025-03-25T02:27:16Z")
I’m pretty sure that the concept of homosexuality was never even brought up in junior high/high school. Heck, our “sex education” consisted of one uninformative half hour lecture as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/26 "2025-03-25T02:30:40Z")
Cracked the Enigma code. Helped invent early computers. Gay. Publicly ostracized after he was outed. Committed suicide. All of this was covered in about two paragraphs of my high school history textbook in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/27 "2025-03-25T03:12:51Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > To the best of my recollection – which is admittedly feeble – I don’t think I learned about Alan Turing until computer science classes in college. And since the focus was computer science, nothing was said about his sexuality or his persecution under British law at the time. I think I learned about that independently much later. Same with me. Exact same story. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/28 "2025-03-25T03:17:13Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Publicly ostracized after he was outed. It was worse than that. He was also [chemically castrated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing) (via hormone treatments). If you could point to one person who saved the most lives in WWII I am willing to bet it would be Alan Turing. And that was how he was treated. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/29 "2025-03-25T03:26:37Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > [@Smapti](#): > > > > Publicly ostracized after he was outed. > > It was worse than that. He was also [chemically castrated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing) (via hormone treatments).   IIRC, he was given that option as an alternative to imprisonment. And the hormones had horrible side effects that are speculated to have led to his suicide. The way Alan Turing was treated severely tarnished my view of 20th century Britain as a civilized society, despite their many other achievements like the post-war NHS. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/30 "2025-03-25T03:33:34Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > IIRC, he was given that option as an alternative to imprisonment. That’s a lousy choice to have to make (I think). ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/31 "2025-03-25T03:34:14Z")
I graduated high school in 1976 and college in 1980. I learned nothing computer-related in high school; in college I learned a little, but nothing about Turing. My own curiosity led me to learn about him later, and I knew about the Turing Test. But I don’t think I understood how he was persecuted for his sexuality until the 2014 movie. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/32 "2025-03-25T03:49:19Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > It was worse than that. He was also [chemically castrated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing) (via hormone treatments). I’m aware, but the question in the OP was what I was taught, not what I know. I found out about that on my own later on. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/33 "2025-03-25T03:52:13Z")
In school? Nothing, nada, jacksquat. Learned about Turing from independent reading, and only when already in college (early/mid 80s). ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/34 "2025-03-25T03:57:31Z")
Fer sure. Turing was _barely_ mentioned in my schooling (again…in relation to Enigma) and they certainly would not have gotten into his sexuality and how the government treated him for it. No way, no how would that have happened. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/35 "2025-03-25T04:00:02Z")
I didn’t learn about him in school, but did learn about the Turing Test from science fiction. Possibly learned about how he was treated from a gay history book sometime later. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/36 "2025-03-25T04:16:35Z")
We had a year of American history in junior high and I took AP US history in high school, so there wasn’t any world history, IIRC. As a EE, we only had a few programming classes and not any general computer science classes so that material would not have been part of the curriculum. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/37 "2025-03-25T04:50:38Z")
Brit here. I don’t think I was taught about it in school, but it’s enough part of our culture that I knew about his role in cracking the enigma codes and his unfortunate demise probably by the time I was a teenager. The rest of his contributions to mathematics and computing, I’ve heard about gradually in the years since. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/38 "2025-03-25T06:18:40Z")
Nothing. In fact, the entirety of WWII was summed up by the History “Teacher” (the football coach) thus: _“Stay away from the tanks! Everybody likes to shoot at the tanks!”_ ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/39 "2025-03-25T07:41:43Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > > [@PastTense](#): > > > > What I don’t understand is why leadership of the British government/national security community who knew the importance of what he had done didn’t have a quiet word with the prosecutors to drop the charges against Turing. > > They were probably bigots themselves IIRC his case occurred at or near the height of the early 50s witch hunt against homosexuals and he would in any case have been seen as a security risk open to blackmail (and this was also the era of anti-Communist hysteria). Plus he naively volunteered the vital inculpatory detail. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/40 "2025-03-25T09:27:09Z")
Starting in Junior High I was (and still) fascinated by all things WW2 and read countless books about everything WW2 at the library. The weapons, planes, ships, Nazis, Japan, concentration camps and of courses the unbreakable enigma machine . I belive I first heard about it on Hogan,'s Heros, so I read up on it. Thats when I first learned who Turing was, by being an overly WW2 obsessed teenager. Just learned his name and that he was a genius who broke the code. Didn’t learn he was gay and persecuted util I saw the movie during the pandemic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067.md?page=3)