In Jim Holt’s essay “Code-Breaker” he speaks of the life, achievements and death of Alan Turing. Holt uses the ethos rhetorical appeal by establishing that he is knowledgeable enough to prove that it is the “technical side that Leavitt falls short. His exposition, full of the sort of excess detail that mathematicians call “hair,” is marred by confusions and errors” (Holt, 344) and further by stating that he has read other works based on Turpin.
Holt wrote this essay to pass on the knowledge of Turing’s remarkable life to the world. I consider myself someone who knows the bits and bytes of the history of computers and their inventors, and yet I have never heard of this man, and I have to ask, why? For all intents and purposes this man should be a national hero in Britain for breaking a code that had a “hundred and 50 quintillion” (Holt 342) possibilities, and he should certainly receive more recognition for pioneering some of the earliest known computing machines, and yet he’s not. That credit for Turing’s computer schematic pioneering goes to John von Neumann (Holt 341) and again I find myself asking why? Is it because Britain was embarrassed of Turing’s homosexuality despite saving countless lives? Did they see it as a threat to decency?
Turing’s death only creates more questions. On the one hand there is a theory that he knew too many secrets from his code breaking days as he was privy to many military classified documents when he himself was not a military man. Another is Leavitt’s theory of Turing being a gay martyr (Holt 337) that he possibly committed suicide via a poisoned apple in hopes of his prince charming waking him up with a kiss. Holt finds this theory hard to believe but I’m not so sure. After all a man as eccentric as Turing who solved the decision problem and pioneered some of the earliest known computers as a philosophical quest is not a man who makes decisions that are easily understood.
Following the essay there are questions for discussion, one of which asks: was Turing a hero or a victim? Personally, I think he’s both.
Turing was a hero and a victim. He was a victim in the sense that in modern times he would not be convicted of being a homosexual. Clearly Turing was also a hero; he saved countless lives, and played a key roll in the survival of Britain during World War II.
ReplyDeleteSince we are unclear as to the reason of his death it's difficult to determine whether he was a victim or a hero. Since the text alludes to a suicide then I think Turing was a victim. He was a victim os his own sexuality and also to the views society held of homosexuality. He was victimized through the medical treatment he suffered which was to suppress his homosexual nature. These drugs 'fatten' him up and gave him breasts. How horrible for a man who prized himself on his physique.
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