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Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

bankofengland.co.uk

31–40 of 226 posts

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

66 years from Kitty Hawk to landing on the Moon. Progress must start somewhere, and encouraging is more helpful than pessimism. Even if I don’t live forever, maybe my kids will. That will meet my success criteria.

Would you want that for them? The idea of immortal humans is extremely unappealing to me.

May they live as long as they wish a happy and healthy life, and may they die when they are ready and have made the choice themselves.

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#32
post #23

It's good that Turing gets put on a banknote - and about time. However, the concept art in that article is really ugly. I'm not that familiar with British banknotes - are they usually that messy looking? Every piece of text is in a different font, and it seems pretty vulgar to have a quote on the note at all. There's even drop shadows! It honestly looks like something I'd put together in Corel Draw in the mid-2000s.

> are they usually that messy looking?

They don't really look much like that. See:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/current-banknotes

I'm hoping the fact that's just the concept art means it'll be reworked to appear more like the existing notes ...

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#33
post #10

Perhaps the continuing decline in the currency's value will give us an opportunity to see £50 notes more frequently. I don't think I've seen one more than twice in the past 12 years, and I get cash out less and less frequently.

You might be living in a bubble, fifty quid is much less than $100 and I see those notes all the time. Getting currency exchanged before a trip? They give huge bills. Buying a used phone or furniture from Craigslist? Are you going to pay with 100 twenties? New ATMs even ask you the breakdown of bill sizes you are want.

The bubble in this case encapsulates the entire UK but thanks for your perspective from a different country.

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#34
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but this is the first time it makes the front page. Better late than never.

It was definitely on the front page last time (664 points, 298 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20439425

Thank you.

The top comment elegantly makes the point that:

It would have been better for Turing if the government left him alone instead of chemically castrating him and driving him to suicide, then venerating him.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20441603

The fight for LGBTQ rights is far from over. As a reminder, LGBTQ individuals are at greater-than-average risk of homelessness.

https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2019/06/lgbtq-indiv...

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

66 years from Kitty Hawk to landing on the Moon. Progress must start somewhere, and encouraging is more helpful than pessimism. Even if I don’t live forever, maybe my kids will. That will meet my success criteria.

Would you want that for them? The idea of immortal humans is extremely unappealing to me.

Having the option is better than not having it

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#36

Alan Turing's achievements * Designed the programming of world's first commercial computer (Ferranti Mark 1) * Devised Turing Test, to test whether computer is capable of thinking like a huamn * Got an OBE for his wartime services * Inventor of Turing Machine. To this day, all stored-programme digital computers are modelled on this invention * Built the machine that helped in the breaking of the Enigma code used by t…

> His work shortened the WW2 by atleast 2 years.

And was then pushed to suicide by the intelligence agencies of the country he saved hundreds of thousands of lives for.

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#37
post #13

These announcements always make me ponder about the people we'll put on bank notes or erect statues in honour of in 50 years and are alive and persecuted today but not recognized by society.

[flagged]

He's a piece of shit but it does make me wonder if society will be so utterly fucked in 50 years that he'll be remembered as a hero

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#38
post #10

Perhaps the continuing decline in the currency's value will give us an opportunity to see £50 notes more frequently. I don't think I've seen one more than twice in the past 12 years, and I get cash out less and less frequently.

You might be living in a bubble, fifty quid is much less than $100 and I see those notes all the time. Getting currency exchanged before a trip? They give huge bills. Buying a used phone or furniture from Craigslist? Are you going to pay with 100 twenties? New ATMs even ask you the breakdown of bill sizes you are want.

Are you just speculating, or do you live in the UK?

From what I’ve heard, £50 notes are used more rarely than $100 bills are here in the US.

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#39

Alan Turing's achievements * Designed the programming of world's first commercial computer (Ferranti Mark 1) * Devised Turing Test, to test whether computer is capable of thinking like a huamn * Got an OBE for his wartime services * Inventor of Turing Machine. To this day, all stored-programme digital computers are modelled on this invention * Built the machine that helped in the breaking of the Enigma code used by t…

> His work shortened the WW2 by atleast 2 years. And was then pushed to suicide by the intelligence agencies of the country he saved hundreds of thousands of lives for.

For the crime of being gay.

Re: Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been almost 50 years since we went to the Moon. So.

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men and women to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

That’s poetic, but oddly terrible advice as we can actually build ships.

Longer lifespans is already a goal, but aging is unlikely to be “solved” in in the next 100 or even 1,000 years. People took much longer than that to figure out how to fly and we have been trying to solve aging for as long if not longer.

Consider buildings age as do diamonds. To fix aging we need to get bodies to do things like regrow teeth and replace the circulatory system. Growing extra lungs to replace lungs being filled with junk etc etc. When we start syncing redundant brains, that’s when we can start ending aging.

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