101–110 of 163 posts
How does such an undeserving leftover of the middle ages even have a say in this?
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I do not think it is possible to knight posthumously.
You are right, not only that but also the title of Knight ceases when one dies.
Though I think the fact we understand and appreciate the full magnitude of what he achieved in the time he had (even some of the general public with little technical interest are at least aware of his contribution to the war effort if not his contribution to information/computation/intelligence theory) is probably the best honour we can give him.
75,000 men were convicted under the same law, of whom 26,000 are still alive. [1] Only Turing has been "pardoned". My understanding [2] is that the "pardon" implies there was nothing wrong with the law as such, just that Turing is forgiven for having broken it. So while I guess this is better than nothing, I don't know if it's really the way to go about it. [1] http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhans…
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It's symbolic. The pardon does absolutely zero for Turing himself - he's long gone. It's symbolic that society is progressing and saying "we don't agree with this thing we used to do".
I agree that this is the intent, but it doesn't take much reading (on this comment page or nearly any press article about it) to see that it's extremely common for people to think that the injustice was particularly strong in Turing's case because he was brilliant. My issue is less with the intent of the pardon and more with how it's presented in the media and how people think about it.
Also his brilliance does come into it once you consider the wider implications. What else could he have achieved (both for his own intellectual satisfaction and our eventual benefit) had he been allowed to continue his work as he wished? How many other people are out there (or were out there) who could have done great things but were not permitted to by society? While I agree that is is bad that we need him to stand as an example to highlight these issues, it is good that he does stand as that example to shine that light on the problem.
This is politically motivated nonsense. At right wing government trying to prove its not homophobic. Yes the Queen issued the pardon, but it wont have been done without the government being consulted. Pardoning one person like this when thousands suffered is an insult. They should have either pardoned everyone who was convicted under these laws, or none of them. Favouring one man because of his historical significanc…
Cameron expended a great deal of political capital, which won't have won him any votes because "TORRIEESS", on same-sex marriage. Haters be hatin', and sure Cameron has done some stupid things, but don't let your class-war prejudices blind you.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10200636/I-want-to-...
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Are there abused or disenfranchised groups you do support payments being made to as a form of compensation? Paying out clearly does nothing for Turing, I mean that payment to those still alive could be helpful. For example, the New Zealand government has paid out groups that suffered due to government action like land unfairly taken. I fully support this.
Sorry, I don't, because where does it end? IMHO, it's nothing more than a token gesture. Financial compensation won't change the wrong that has been done. It's superficial and ever so slightly patronising. It's symptomatic of the vile litigious happy culture that we find ourselves in.
How ironic, coming the same week as LGBT education sites are blocked by British "porn" filters. The best pardon to someone who is dead would be to stop doing similar misdeeds to those who are living.
The "porn" filters are stupid and creeping totalitarianism, but it's irresponsible and disrespectful to compare them to what was done to Turing. He was persecuted and prosecuted; publically humiliated; forced to receive hormonal injections that rendered him impotent; banned from traveling to the USA; essentially banned from any jobs involving cryptography or national security; and ultimately committed suicide in larg…
He wasn't forced to receive hormone injections he chose it in preference to serving a one year imprisonment. As an expert chemist he was no doubt aware of the implications of that choice.
My reading of this has always been that his apparent predilection for picking up teenagers made him a massive security risk. Surely had he done the same with teenage girls he too would have been banned from jobs involving high level security clearance. It also strikes me that maybe Turing didn't like that element of his life?
[I have a pop-psych theory on this all being related to a fixation on Morcom, his childhood friend who died. But 40-something men lusting for teenagers is common enough that the theory lacks support.]
Wait. Someone who has a title and shitloads of money just because they were born is pardoning one of the greatest geniuses of the 20th century, as an act of kindness? How does such an undeserving leftover of the middle ages even have a say in this?
Scumbag Hacker News: Admires spies only after they're dead.
You really compare the NSA to activities at Bletchley Park, fighting Nazis?
Pardon ? For what? Thanks but no thanks.
Buggery. It's been illegal many places for a very long time because it spreads disease. The sodomy laws were effectively repealed and we got AIDS. It was not a coincidence.