Monday, May 6, 2013

Alan Turing…

Dear Friends,

This cat basically invented what we now call computing. He had some help from a notable Lady, named Ada Lovelace and several other folks going back to the 1800s, but Alan Turing pretty well put the cherry on top of the sundae in the midst of WW2. In so doing he might have saved the world from Fascism. His payment for such cleverness and heroism was to be chemically castrated for the crime of making love with another man.

He committed suicide. He felt unrecognized and did not like the fact that he was growing breasts. He ate a bite of an apple laced with cyanide and went unrecognized for decades due to the secrecy attached to his pioneering work. He is a hero of mine. As my fingers fly over these keys to telecommunicate with you, I am thinking of the gentleman who laid the rails for our present digital railroad.

Oh, and he really liked stories like "Snow White". He was a sublime cryptographer. Might there have been a secret message in the half eaten apple left on his desk by his open books of notes?


Hic Finis Est,

SCS