History Memes

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Alan Turing was a fucking hero, and the British legal system drove him to suicide (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/historymemes@lemmy.world

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[–] ReCursing 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He was undeniably brilliant, and was instrumental in both the development of the Bombe (which broke the Enigma code), and the programming of Colossus (which broke... the other code the Germans used of which I can't remember the name). Plus he was instrumental in the first steps of both computer science in general and artifical intelligence in particular. He deserves the plaudits.

But so do a lot of other people who worked at Bletchly park (if you get the chance, go there, it's great) and elsewhere.

[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

He sure was brilliant. And what was done to him is from today's standpoint barbaric, but the notion that he alone was responsible for breaking the codes is a terrible falsehood that needs to die.

I think we can celebrate his brilliancy without discrediting everyone else that worked on the project. There's just no need to add lies such as "single handedly".