Alan Turing won it which is fair, it was he's mathematical genius which led to modern computers which dominate our lives today.
That he was treated so atrociously by the British Government for being homosexual after doing so much to win the Second World War that he ended taking his own life today in 1954 is shameful and it doesn't even begin to make up for it that the British Public agreed and voted him first.
On his team was Ian Fleming, who'd later go on to write the James Bond books and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang but they didn't really get along and not just because of Fleming's stupid idea of a movie about our fine four fendered friend.
Turing used his smarts to design the Bombe machine and suddenly, secret German communications were no longer secret and shortened the war by up to four years with the irony that by ending the war prematurely, it bought about his own demise even quicker as back then homosexuality was illegal in Great Britain.
Rather than be celebrated, they took his machine, won the war and then accused him of gross indecency for being homosexual and sentenced to either imprisonment or chemical castration which as rewards go isn't great so he went for the third option and bit into an apple that he had injected with cyanide and i assumed invented the Apple Logo right there.
I had assumed wrongly because it's actually a nod towards Isaac Newton sitting under his tree with an apple dangling above him and over time they simplified it to just the Apple logo with a bite taken out of it so it wasn't mistaken for a cherry.
While not wishing to relegate Isaac Newtons achievements, the Turing idea was much more poetic and fitting for a computer company. I will file it in 'things i wished i hadn't found out' along with raspberry flavouring comes from beavers backsides, the red smarties are made from crushed beetles and Hotel California is just a rip off of a Jethro Tull song.
No comments:
Post a Comment