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From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Subject: Re: Roger Penrose's new book
References: <mack.782955295@redwood007> <Cy6983.oHB@nyongwa.montreal.qc.ca> <38homn$r83@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>
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Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 05:44:04 GMT
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In article <38homn$r83@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> tom@astro.as.utexas.edu (Tom Benedict) writes:

>Alan Turing was part of a secret branch of the British government, and so
>wasn't a "war hero" as such during his lifetime.  The ramifications of this
>didn't really set in until it became public knowledge that he was a homosexual.
>Since the government couldn't lay claim to him,  they were unable to protect
>him from the law (which, at that time treated homo-sexuality as a mental
>disorder.)  He was given shock treatment, and later committed suicide.

According to Hodge's biography the US secret services were desperately
paranoid about the security problems of homosexuals. Because of the
info sharing, Turing got to know a lot of what went on on both sides.
The US didn't like this at all, but had to put up with it since a war
was on and Turing was the expert they needed. But after the war they
put pressure on the UK Govt to clean out homosexuals from security
sensitive positions. They had a big lever since they were giving the
UK secret services very large funding to set up a remote controlled
electronically tappable phone network (still in the final stages of
completion) in exchange for transcripts of the off-shore phone calls
of US nationals in Britain. Well, that was what the official deal
said...

This resulted in Turing being prevented from doing any more research
on computers. It also may have resulted in some police harassment.
Quite apart from the feminising drugs he was forced to take as
"treatment" for his homosexuality, the premature termination of his
brilliant career in computing may well have upset him.
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205
"The mind reigns, but does not govern" -- Paul Valery
