• ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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    16 hours ago

    Turing didn’t start coding until 1948 though. His war work didn’t involve computers, rather the electro-mechanical Bombe devices.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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    2 days ago

    Explanation: One of the key scientists in the construction of early codebreaking computers in WW2 was Alan Turing (yes, of Turing Test fame), a gay man. While it was not immediately after WW2, in the 1950s, he inadvertently admitted to a cop that he was homosexual when being interviewed about a burglary at his house (cops, even on the occasions they are useful, are NOT your friends). His key work in defeating the literal fucking Nazis was disregarded in favor of chemically castrating him after he pled guilty to the charge.

    It is suspected that this was a major cause of his subsequent suspected suicide by biting into a cyanide-laced apple (though some still hold that the apple incident was an accident).

    • Novaling@lemmy.zip
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      13 hours ago

      disregarded in favor of chemically castrating him after he pled guilty to the charge.

      Huh. Fucking awful, but like, why chemically castrate someone who’s gay? They’re unlikely to have kids (unless they’re bi/pan/etc.), so like, why? On the off chance they did decide to have a kid, who would that affect. Were they afraid of spreading “The Gay™️” to their children via DNA? If anything they should’ve prayed and hoped his mental genius would pass onto his kids.

      Fucking atrocious…

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      At the time Turing (arguably) killed himself, the “Ultra” project was still a state secret that nobody publicly knew anything about. However, people like Churchill did know all about it and they knew exactly the magnitude of Turing’s contribution to it, and yet they did nothing to defend Turing although they could have without revealing the Ultra secrets. Absolutely shameful.

    • gedhrel@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It wasn’t disregarded; it was never mentioned because it was still a state secret.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Wasn’t it more so that his work was still highly classified rather than actively disregarded? There were definitely those that could have intervened that didn’t though. Really shameful

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      So WTF does queer mean?! Our man was simply gay, homosexual, we have words for that. That’s a sincere question BTW. As an old cis guy, “queer” seems to mean whatever the fuck people want it to mean, seen a few definitions. Somebody help?

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Fair enough. But lgbtqia+?! Can we not see how confusing are arbitrary these words and meanings and acronyms are?

          Imma roll with LGBT. Good enough, covers everyone, at least close enough.

          • DebraBucket@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            My definition is any group that typically was targeted by the slur “queer” in the past would be covered by the queer umbrella. The slur was generally used against minority sexual orientations and gender identities, or in other words any trait or behavior that is not “normal” for heterosexuals or “normal” for man/woman, but isn’t limited to well defined groups. For example, a cisgender heterosexual man who liked to dress in women’s clothing would be considered queer by those who use it as a slur. They are not LGBT, but if they identified as Queer that would make sense to me.

          • killingspark@feddit.org
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            1 day ago

            Lgbtqia+ isn’t any more arbitrary than lgbt if you take the 5 minutes to google what it means.

            Honestly, using queer is probably better than lgbt because that includes the Asexuals and Intersex people, which is what the a and i are representing.

            The terms are getting more and more complicated because we finally allowed people to not be conformant with the norms. So we are in the process of discovering new identities that shouldn’t be unrepresented over the years, which obviously makes talking about this more complex but also allows us to be more accurate.

          • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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            1 day ago

            It’s not hard to learn for people who like learning about the world, is only hard for people who think understanding other people is a burden.

      • PoopingCough@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Like the other person said, these days queer is usually used as a sort of catch-all for any one not cisgendered and straight, although sometimes people identify as simply queer if they don’t feel they fit neatly in any of the predefined lgbt+ etc categories.

        • smh@slrpnk.net
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          1 day ago

          or even if they do fit neatly and they just don’t want to explain their specifics (because it can be wicked burdensome/gets old/folks want you to justify your identity)

          • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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            1 day ago

            Drag can definitely understand why someone with an identity like drag’s wouldn’t broadcast it. A lot of people on the right wing feel enraged when they see someone with a weird identity, and they get the cause and effect mixed around and think the identity is designed to make them angry, so they call drag a troll. One guy even sexually harassed himself with an alt account and tried to convince people drag made the alt, and people believed it for a few months before he started using the same trick on everyone else he disagreed with.

      • bstix@feddit.dk
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        1 day ago

        Well… if the paper is worth what it says on it, then it’s about 18 billion pound sterling in total for all the 50 notes printed.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’m glad he’s on money but something more often seen would have been better. Although with inflation the 50 might be the new 20

      • Z3k3@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I did not know they did this although to be honest I can’t remember the last time I saw a bank of England note never mind a 50

    • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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      16 hours ago

      As one historian remarked, WW2 happened, and Turing was alive and working on something at Bletchley at the time. Everything else in that film utter bollocks.

      • daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 hours ago

        Do you mean that a team in charge of reverse engineering didn’t make the decisions on how the whole allied military should act after decrypting one message? Impossible!

    • gedhrel@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s a horrific character assassination.

      The only two things it gets right are: there was a second world war; Alan Turing worked at Bletchley.

    • cheers_queers@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Very much so. I watched it back when benedict cumberbatch was The Guy, and it was more than i expected. It may have radicalised me a bit haha

      • dickalan@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Hell, yeah my friend recommended that to me after I told him I had just started snow crash and I was loving the fuck out of it

        • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          Snow Crash is so weird. It’s great. If you want another one along the same lines as far as zaniness goes you should read The Big U.
          Cryptonomicon and the System of the World trilogy and Reamde and Anathem and the rest of them are more serious (but probably also better works objectively (but there’s nothing wrong with the fun ones)).
          Alan Turing is in Cryptonomicon though, also the whole book is excellent. I’m due for a reread.