Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

yes atonement is difficult in this case.

A sad story indeed. If I recall correctly from the biography Turing spent time working at Princeton as Alonzo Church had independently produced the same results so it's really the Church-Turing thesis.

Statues and government apologies don't mean squat. The important thing is to never let the story be forgotten.



I see the point about "government apologies", but one good way to make sure the story is never forgotten is to name public structures (roads, schools, etc.) after Turing so that his name is always in the public eye.


My school houses were named after people: James, Cartwright, Francombe, Colston and Canynges. I went there for five years and don't know who any of them were. Next year I'll be living on Sir Henry Parkes Road; I have no idea who he was, either.

Simply naming things after people doesn't tell the public about those people, and I think most people won't bother to research "that guy whose name is on the building". In most cases, it won't be anyone interesting, just a rich person who gave money to fund construction.


I think people thought for a long time on how to save the story, and not only the name, from being forgotten. Apple's original logo was designed as a such tribute.


Or, more accurately, an urban legend about Apple's original logo.


I saw photos of Wozniak ostensibly (?) wearing heart-shaped glasses at the time, that left me with impression the logo could be intentional.

I've read up on this just now and it seems that logo indeed had nothing to do with commemorating Turing's oppression. The rainbow was due to a design trend at the time, Commodore and Atari logos sporting rainbows too.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: