The cruel fate of Alan Turing or another reason why I do not believe in man kind

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

One more thing – when Alan Turing died, he pretty much took the British computer industry with him. Nothing really important in Computer Science came out of Britain after that. (Possible exception is Tony Hoare’s algorithm for HoareSort, but he was in Ireland, really.)

Wonder if the British Government is proud of that accomplishment?

[Snooooopy]

*Originally posted by Khadaji *
**I didn’t think that I was being nasty. To be honest, I thought that he would be genuinely interested in Jin Wicked’s tribute through her art and the write up she did explaining the inspiration. If it seemed nasty, well, I guess I offer an apology. But boy, linking to art never seemed nasty or condescending to me… **

I didn’t mean you! In this case, “everyone” meant “most everyone.”

[Khadaji]

*Originally posted by Snooooopy *
**I didn’t mean you! In this case, “everyone” meant “most everyone.” **

I musta been feeling contrary last night - 'cause I’m sure I coulda figured that out if I had given it real thought. Sorry.

[Mangetout]

*Originally posted by faldureon *
**Thank you British government, thank you Christian religion, thank you bigots and homophobes of the world for reminding me once again that it is a cold, cruel and unfair planet, I almost succeeded in making myself forget about that. **

Not that I’m trying to downplay any of this grievous account (and I really do look upon it as a gross and pointless tragedy)…

…But the same thing might have happened anywhere (not just Britain) and the way in which he was treated was decidedly un-Christian (although I’m sure I coould find someone to disagree with me on that topic).

It was a shocking and deplorable abuse and waste of the life of such a promising individual; who knows what he might have achieved if he had lived out his natural span?

But it is done. Finished. It happened before many of us were even born. There is nothing we can do to change that.

The world will never be the same - we can endlessly lament the loss; fall into despair over the state of the human race, or we can let it serve as an example of intolerance that we will ourselves resist to our very last breath.

[KellyM]

*Originally posted by t-bonham@scc.net *
Turing was required to take various hormonal/steroid type drugs; supposedly these were to “cure” him of being homosexual. (Rather crude versions of the drugs used by pre-operative transexuals today). Side effects from these drugs caused certain changes in his body (for example, his breasts started to enlarge, testicals began to shrink, beard & chest hair died out).

Could you possibly tell me what these drugs are that make beard die out? I’ve been on hormone replacement for almost three years now and my beard hasn’t died out to any significant degree that can’t be attributed to electrolytic or photolytic follicle destruction.

Note to the uninformed: the hormone replacement regimen used by transsexuals does not cause your beard to die out. The only drugs that will do that are the chemotherapy agents that cause all your hair to fall out, and even with those your beard will probably grow back when you stop taking them.

I’ve never been completely clear on what drugs Turing was required to take; some sources say he was given female hormones, other say he was given male hormones. Neither, obviously, will cure homosexuality, although that might not have been obvious to scientists in the 1950s. Imposing a cure against his wishes was immoral, whether or not it would have worked.

[Plankspanker]

I’m a computer sciences (artificial intelligence) student too faldureon, and i gotta say it sickened me when i found out about this too. i hate this whole culture of shitting on people because they’re different in some way. from musical tastes to sexual preference…

[Cornelius_Tuggerson]

Plankspanker I totally hear you man. And what sucks even more is that you in the UK and me in the US we have it really really good compared to most of the rest of the world. Oh great, it’s a beautiful Monday morning and my day off and I already found a way to make myself miserable. I should be on drugs or something

PS Hey you wouldn’t happen to live around the Worchester/Great Malvern area? I was there for a little bit some time back and was wondering if they ever built that huge well to pump water out of Malvern Hills springs?

[Plankspanker]

i wouldnt have any idea about that at all, cos i live in norfolk (braces himself for the nfn jokes). best thing to do is google it on google.co.uk and use uk only.

[Otto]

I hate to trouble Colonel and Mrs Lindbergh with this news…they’re dealing with so much of their own right now…

[spogga]

*Originally posted by Plankspanker *
**i wouldnt have any idea about that at all, cos i live in norfolk (braces himself for the nfn jokes). best thing to do is google it on google.co.uk and use uk only. **

So you’re the guy that drives the tractor then

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

*Originally posted by KellyM *
**Could you possibly tell me what these drugs are that make beard die out? I’ve been on hormone replacement for almost three years now and my beard hasn’t died out to any significant degree that can’t be attributed to electrolytic or photolytic follicle destruction.

Note to the uninformed: the hormone replacement regimen used by transsexuals does not cause your beard to die out. The only drugs that will do that are the chemotherapy agents that cause all your hair to fall out, and even with those your beard will probably grow back when you stop taking them.**

Sounds like you know more about this than I do. What I recall from reading about it (some years ago) was the breasts enlarging/testicles shrinking part and ‘male secondary sexual characteristics’ fading out. I guess I interpreted that as male hair loss – about all I could recall as ‘male secondary sexual characteristics’ from biology class years ago. I wonder what this actually was, then?

[matt_mcl]

I’m really not surprised you’re only coming to this story now. Queer history has a way of getting buried, and you can turn up interesting/infuriating sidelights like this in a great many places.

However, these things are also useful for highlighting how far we’ve come - something it’s important to reflect on sometimes. A decade or so ago, I wouldn’t even be able to contemplate bringing the boi to Canada, let alone marrying him.