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Alan Turing to be the face of new £50 note

bankofengland.co.uk

41–50 of 226 posts

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

#41

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.

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

#42

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.

I think Obama will most likely be on a note at some point

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

#43

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.

Aubrey de Grey. The future will look back at today like we were savages for not innovating faster to cure aging. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey

Living forever seems inevitable to have unintended consequences, so it's hard to say whether it'd be a good thing or not. They could end up seeing it as a mistake.

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

#44
post #18
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.

It's because £50 notes have always been associated with fraud and money laundering, which has negative connotations for both users and merchants.

Paying for something with £50 notes is a nerve-racking experience rivalled only by attempting to attempting to spend Scottish notes in England

(I usually chicken out and just deposit them all at a bank)

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

#45
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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…

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

#46
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.

Heh, I think you might be trapped in the bubble of a country without free easy ways to transfer money electronically. Essentially every UK bank account offers free, instant transfers to any other account.

The only time I’ve personally had £50s in the past decade is when I was paid in cash for a software job by a somewhat dodgy client; that’s the association they have generally.

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

#47

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.

Satoshi Nakamoto? I think Turing was recognised as a great mathematician in his day but still persecuted.

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

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd say it's about the same. With 10+ years in each country I see both about as frequently. Maybe 50 quid more often since atms give them out but can't recall a non casino USA atm ever doing hundreds

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

#49
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.

Anti counterfeiting measures, perchance?

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