Maybe, and I speak here as someone who has studied the life of Alan M Turing in great detail. Alan Turing had two problems, firstly he was a genius and secondly he was a homosexual.
When someone's mind reaches the power of someone like Alan Turing things are operating in an entirely different way. Thanks to Dr Turing and the work done at Bletchley Park the Allies won the U-Boat war and the axis powers were defeated, and this was a series of problems that HAD to be solved at any cost. It's on record that Alan Turing spent three weeks staring at a piece of paper running through his head the thousands of possible permutations that an ENIGMA machine could generate, none of us could even dream of doing this.
As for Alan Turing's sexual orientation, this put the man under amazing pressure because of the attitudes of the time. WP members outside of the UK and those too young to remember should realise that at the time Alan Turing carried out his greatest work homosexuality was illegal in the UK and people found guilty of this offence could be put in prison or chemically castrated. It was being charged with homosexuality that probably led to his suicide.
The work done by Alan Turing has at last been recognised and there are a number of memorials to the man and his work. part of the Manchester outer ring road is named the Alan Turing Way and there is a statue and memorial (which I helped pay for) in Sackville Park between Manchester University and the Gay Village. Apart from Bletchley Park there is one further memorial, I grew up in the UK with Harold McMillan as Prime Minister, not Adolf Hitler. I therefore owe the man a great debt.
Vanilla_Slice
30 Jan 2010, 10:45 am
I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man ! 
