THE RELEVANT QUEER: Alan Turing, Mathematician, Computer Scientist and Philosopher

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

TRQ: Alan Turing, Born June 23, 1912

Mathematician, computer scientist and philosopher Alan Turing, known as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, was born on June 23, 1912. Turing became an officer of the Order of the British Empire for his heroic cracking the Enigma machine code during World War II. The British government then convicted and chemically castrated him for the crime of being gay, which lead to his suicide. 

Turing was born in Maida Vale, London. His parents, Julius and Ethel, spent his childhood years traveling between the United Kingdom and India because of his father’s job with the Indian Civil Service. He was educated through the British public school system, where teachers chastised his preference for science over the classics. 

In 1926, he attended Sherborne School and fell in love with Christopher Morcom, a student one year ahead of him. Both were passionate about science. Morcom died of tuberculosis in 1930, and the grieving Turing poured himself into scientific work. 

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” — Alan Turing 

A year later, Turing enrolled at King’s College. In 1934 he graduated with a first- class honours in mathematics. After his dissertation proved the central limit theorem, Turing became a Fellow of King’s College. He was 22. Next, Turing conceptualised the universal Turing machine, which could simulate any other machine. This was essentially the computer as we know it. 

In 1938, Turing earned his PhD at Princeton University as a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow. He studied mathematics and cryptology and partially built a binary multiplier. 

When Turing returned to Cambridge in 1938, he worked with the Government Code and Cypher School. He concentrated on crypto-analysing Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine. 

Though he never hid his sexuality, Turing proposed to colleague Joan Clarke in 1941. Even though Clarke was untroubled by his homosexuality, Turing decided against the marriage. In 1946, King George VI appointed Turing an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his wartime efforts. 

In 1950, Turing devised the Turing test that considered a machine’s ability to think by comparing its exhibited intelligent behaviour with a human’s. His original “imitation game” involved a man, a woman and an interrogator, and the aim was to have the interrogator decide which player was the man, and which was the woman. The Turing test replaced the woman with a computer. 

Turing’s work in computer and software design and artificial intelligence earned him election as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1951. In 1952, Turing met Arnold Murray, and the two started a relationship. Less than a month later, when Turing’s home was burgled, he confessed his relationship with Murray to the police. The police charged both men with “gross indecency,” because homosexual acts were against the law. Oscar Wilde also faced these charges in 1895. 

Rather than go to prison, Turing submitted to organo-therapy, which used synthetic oestrogen as chemical castration. Turing was left impotent, and he developed breasts. Two years later, on June 7, 1954, Turing committed suicide by cyanide. 

Under the leadership of programmer John Graham-Cumming, Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised for the British government’s prosecution of Turing on September 10, 2009. In December 2013, the Queen Elizabeth II and the British government pardoned Turing for his “gross indecency” conviction. 

In 2014, the film The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing was released. In October 2016, the British government announced “Turing’s Law” to pardon thousands of men convicted of homosexual acts. In July 2019, Turing appeared on the UK’s £50 note. 

About the Authors

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore. 

Sources:

Biography

Britannica

GLAAD

GLBTQ Archive