I wonder if you have ever observed the pound sterling?
We all know that the back of the renminbi is the landscape.
GBP is different. The back is printed with famous people in various fields in British history. The current version of
is 50 pounds, printed with the pioneer of the industrial revolution and steam engine reformer Watt and his partner Bolton. The greats who have appeared before include Newton, Darwin, and Michael Faraday.
On July 15, the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney announced that Turing, the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, was on the new British £50 banknote.
Carney said that as an outstanding mathematician Turing, even if he passed away a hundred years, his legacy still deeply affects today's society. The official recognition of
made Turing's followers feel like they are finally out. Although
is known as the "most disappointed person", it seems impossible for Turing to appear on banknotes for decades.
Turing is impeccable in terms of contribution, knowledge, and influence, but there is always a root in the heart of Britain. The thorn
is Turing's suicide.
A genius
Turing has always been admired by scholars in various fields. He is a mathematician, cryptographer, biologist, and the absolute founder of artificial intelligence.
Looking at a series of titles, the "founder of artificial intelligence" should be the most attractive to us, right? After all,
had AlphaGo, which defeated human Go by , and thought-provoking "What’s your problem?". Artificial intelligence has been heated up.
And this concept all comes from Turing's hypothesis: Can machines think?
Around this hypothesis, Turing conducted a series of experiments, and finally compiled the paper "Can a machine think". The "Turing test" mentioned in the
paper is still one of the benchmarks of artificial intelligence:
A person and a computer are in two sealed rooms, and the people and machines in the room must use keyboard text to work hard The inquirer from outside proves that he is the real "person." If the machine succeeds in making the inquirer of the outside world believe that he is a human being, then it is equivalent to having deceived human beings, which means that it has intelligence. Once the paper was published,
caused a frenzy of discussion in academia.
The paper was published in 1950. The world at that time was far less open than it is today. The idea of "let robots have intelligence" has been denounced by religious, philosophical, and computer circles as "great unruly" and "impractical".
But Turing didn't care at all. He also predicted:
I believe that within 50 years, the problem of machines being able to think will no longer be worth discussing, because it will become a self-evident fact.
Facts have proved that the vision of genius is indeed longer than most people.
In addition to being obsessed with science, art, poetry, and sports are all his hobbies. The long-distance running level even reaches the level of professional athletes.
Even in an international marathon, Turing outperformed the Olympic silver medalist Tom Richards.
This kind of all-round and endless talent, what is it like?
Yes, it looks like a "child of another person".
At the same time, his contribution to world peace is even greater.
In 1939, when World War II broke out, the Germans used the latest invention, the Enigma cipher, to encrypt important information.
Germans are very confident in their inventions. They believe that people who can crack the encrypted information are definitely not born yet.
For a period of time, the Allies were really helpless against these ciphertexts.
But the slapped face came very quickly. With Turing's joining, the British Government Coding and Cryptography Institute has made rapid progress in cracking the ciphertext. The
deciphering machine codenamed "bomb" was born under Turing, and the long-suffering ciphertext of the Allies became a vernacular.
Since then, the Allied forces know even better than the Germans where their troops will appear.
The allied forces in the famous "Normandy Landing" battle were able to achieve a complete victory, all relying on the "bomb" invented by Turing.
Because of its excellent secrecy work, Germany has been suspicious after the war that the high-level military has spies.
But the fate of genius always seems to be ill-fated. In Turing, a trait that is not accepted by the world makes him have to become lonely. The "crime" of homosexuality
As early as the age of 17, Turing discovered that he seemed to prefer to stay with men.
asked him to confirm this, it was a senior named Christopher Mocomb.
At that time, he was addicted to the study of quantum mechanics, which seemed too esoteric to those around him.
And Christopher is one of the few people who can discuss with him.
After many enthusiastic discussions, love is born between the two teenagers. We don't know whether
fell in love with the other's knowledge or fell in love with each other, we don't know, maybe both.
's joint experiment and study time and time again have become unique memories between the two.
Turing’s bad words are reflected in the diary, and the way he expresses his love is as dumb as an engineering man:
"My biggest ideal is to be as good as Chris. In fact, I also do his scientific ideas. I have thought of it, but my ability to put it into practice is relatively poor."
Chris is much more romantic. In the hand letter to Turing, he wrote:
"I want to hold your hand, let's go see Stars. Let’s go to see Sagittarius. I made a telescope that can see bright stars of the sixth magnitude."
The lover’s wisdom and romance deeply attracted Turing, and it made him secretly determined to go to the other side. University of Cambridge.
Chris is about to leave the town when he is facing a higher education. In Turing's mind, this is only a temporary difference, so there is noGoodbye.
But who thought, that night, Chris was taken to the hospital by tuberculosis. After six days, he left forever.
Even years later, Turing confessed that he could not forget Chris. He will always miss the feeling of being held by Chris after the experiment.
Until the age of 40, his silent heart was re-awakened by another teenager named Arnold Murray.
Arnold is 19 years old, similar to Chris who died young. Although
seemed a little abrupt, Turing enthusiastically invited Arnold to his home and spent the night.
After that, they lived together for a while, eating together, chatting together, and sleeping together. Turing thought he finally had a chance to embrace love again.
But Arnold is completely different from Christopher. The long years of wandering life has shaped Arnold into a "good man" who is good at disguising.
On the surface, Arnold catered to Turing and met all his requirements, but secretly told his friends that Turing was gay. The friend of
was surprised, "We should grab this handle and blackmail him." While Turing was out, the two ransacked his home.
police quickly tracked down Arnold’s head, but Turing’s "homosexual" identity was exposed.
After being questioned by the police, Turing did not conceal any more. He naively thought that homosexuality would be legalized.
However, according to the laws at the time, "sexual acts between the same sex" was a crime, and Turing was convicted of "serious indecency." Considering the contribution of Turing's research work to society, the judge ruled that he does not need to be in jail, provided that he receives treatment.
He must regularly inject female hormones, which is the so-called "chemical castration". And was required to be circumcised, and the article was subject to various reviews.
Faced with such a sentence, Turing accepted it calmly on the surface, but the gloomy life still showed that his heart was not at peace.
Since then, he has particularly liked a sentence in "Snow White": "Let the apple soak in this poison, and let death come by my side." He even asked the Royal Society to conduct research on himself. He felt that this phenomenon was rare.
has regarded himself as a research object, not a human being. We can't imagine what kind of pain Turing feels at this time.
is also a little bit hindered. The government's secret intelligence work does not welcome deviant "homosexuals", and the faculty of the University of Manchester has disappeared.
Fortunately, the hormone punishment did not last long. One year later, Turing finally no longer had to endure the trouble of breast development.
After removing his status as a "victim", he received an olive branch from various agencies.
According to the normal plot, the next step should be Turing's decision to stay away from world affairs, indulge in research, and climb the summit of science.
But he decided to make a joke with everyone.
On the morning of June 8, 1954, Turing’s body on the bed was found by the maid. On the small table by the bedside of
is an apple that has been bitten into, and there is also a jam jar full of potassium cyanide in the room. Combined with Turing’s death of foaming at the mouth, the forensic examination concluded that Turing died of cyanide poisoning, which was a suicide.
Turing's death shocked everyone who knew him, without any hint, sign or explanation, it seemed to be an unfounded self-disruption.
and the wording of the news published in the British Post is even more angry.
they implicitly called it the "old bachelor living alone", and the readers of the year must have understood the hint.
The government's unfair treatment of Turing caused public outrage. A total of 30,000 people signed a letter asking the government to apologize.
With the support of the gay community and the support of some people, it was 13 years after Turing’s death that homosexuality was removed from the realm of "crime".
During this period, Turing's departure was somewhat strange in the eyes of the world.
It was only in 2009 that British Prime Minister Brown issued a clear statement of apology, expressing heartache for Turing’s experience, and making a formal apology.
In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom granted an amnesty to Turing posthumously. Today, Turing is printed on the British Pound representing the country.
All of this is a signal that shows how much society has changed since Turing was convicted of "homosexuality".
"This is an appropriate and popular tribute to a true hero." said
, former Manchester MP and gay rights activist John Leech, who ran for Alan Turing's pardon.
" But more importantly, I hope it can be a harsh and painful reminder of what we have done to Turing and what risks we will take when we let that hateful ideology win "
Fortunately, we did not let the paranoid thoughts continue, but chose respect.
But there are countless people who hope that if Turing at the time was just waiting for a kiss to wake him up, just like in a fairy tale.
References
1. Alan Mathison Turing-Baidu Encyclopedia
https://baike.baidu.com/item/Alan Mathison Turing/3940576?fromtitle=%E5%9B%BE %E7%81%B5&fromid=1212082_1
2. The father of artificial intelligence Alan Mathison Turing
https://blog.csdn.net/m0epNwstYk4/article/details/78700411
3. Cryptographic figures 3. Alan McSey Sen Turing
http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-66724-1037426.html
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