6 replies to this topic

[Fastorq]

A mathematical genius well ahead of his time.
His contributions to computer development astonishing even by today’s standards
and he forecast the creation of Artificial Intelligence.
Due largely to him many thousands of British and allied soldiers
lived to see the end of WWII and return to their families.

He was gay at a time when that was illegal
So he was pilloried , despised , chemically castrated.
He eventually committed suicide on 7June 1954

[ukcooper]

im 50ish and very duppiresed you know who he is as most my mates kids dont ,,well done...

[Orange-Phantom]

An absolute genius is probably an understatement.  The amount of lives that he and his team saved is without question (although the Polish codebreakers had already cracked early Enigma and passed that knowledge onto Britain before the outbreak of war).  It's such a shame that he wasn't given the credit he was due in his lifetime and also the Polish Mathematicians who rarely get a mention.  Thankfully attitudes towards homosexuality have shifted dramatically.

 

Fast forward to the 1980's Two British chaps, Roger Wilson and Steve Furber designed and invented the ARM Processor.  They worked at Acorn Computers that made the BBC Micro and Later the Archimedes (which was miles ahead of most computers at it's time and was the first computer to use the ARM processor).  (ARM stood for Acorn RISC Machine).  Now over 95% of smartphones use the ARM processor not withstanding all the other devices with embedded processors, even the PS4 has one in it for standby tasks.  Well Roger Wilson is... now Sophie Wilson, and again without question is another computing genius.  Thankfully she did not have to suffer like Alan.

 

It's just a shame that good old Great Britain never capitalised on it's huge contribution to computing, but that is an age old story that would appear to keep repeating.  Not long ago ARM was sold to Japanese firm Softbank.

[KTS]

well deserved honour, long overdue.

[hhhh]

im 50ish and very duppiresed you know who he is as most my mates kids dont ,,well done...

There's bad spelling and then there's this... "Impressed"?

[ukcooper]

humm spellind not my stromg point , give mr a cnc machine and we can talk all day and make music thats my strong poinr lol

[Fastorq]

im 50ish and very duppiresed you know who he is as most my mates kids dont ,,well done...

Im 68
Also I did some consulting work for the Turing Institute in Glasgow in the early 90s