Tales/The imitation game/Myths and Heroes+ the idea of Progress

 1°http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-18561092

Alan Turing: Inquest's suicide verdict 'not supportable'.Alan Turing, the British mathematical genius and codebreaker born 100 years ago on 23 June, may not have committed suicide, as is widely believed.

2°http://historysheroes.e2bn.org/hero/weretheyahero/91

 

Should Alan Turing be considered a hero?

Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I, and we all are for what happened to him. So on behalf of the British Government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan's work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better.

Gordon Brown 10 September 2009

Arguments for He was tenacious: he would not turn away from the job he had to do.  His determination to break the German codes, led him to working very long hours. He would not let up until the problem was solved. This probably shortened the war by as much as 2 years. He was an inspirational visionary.  His ideas about the potential of computing were years ahead of his contemporaries and of what was possible at the time. His ideas inspired a whole generation of computer scientists and made our modern computing possible. Alan was ambitious for the furtherance of knowledge for the general good.  His ambition was to advance knowledge, knowledge which could be used for the improvement of understanding and the development of technology to take the world forward. He was brave and patriotic.  Alan could have stayed safely in America, studying Mathematics at Princeton, but chose instead to return to Britain in 1938, wanting to play his part in the impending war effort. He subsequently went to America to share knowledge with their crypotologists, travelling at a time when the Battle of the Atlantic was at its most dangerous. -It was a good thing the authorities hadn't known Turing was a homosexual during the war, because if they had, they would have fired him – and we would have lost. Professor Jack Good, wartime colleague of Alan Turing  3°TS : E.SNOWDEN AND  A.TURING : A COMPARISON http://iupress.typepad.com/blog/2015/02/guest-post-the-human-faces-of-spying-alan-turing-and-edward-snowden-on-the-sliver-screen.html

Arguments against He was always in a safe environment.  Alan Turing, broke codes and cyphers, from the safety of Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. He did not have to risk his life and was in very little physical danger.