A Century of Turing.

Only recently I have become aware of a great mind born on the 23rd June 1912, and now considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. In this year of his 100th birthday we should remember his achievements with honour.

Alan Turing became known from working during the Second World War at Bletchley Park, the code breaking centre leading onto solving the German enigma code, which helped win the war. He also spent time in United States in 1942, and worked with U.S. Navy cryptanalyst's on Naval Enigma and bombe device construction in Washington. In the later part of the 40's he worked on some of the first computers and created the 'Turing' test in relation to artificial intelligence, which is still used today.

Even with all the this computer science discoveries, Turing sadly died at 41 from cyanide poisoning. He was convicted of indecency from homosexual acts, which appears ridiculous today. He was given a choice in 1952 between imprisonment or probation conditional on his agreement to undergo hormone treatment designed to reduce sexual desire. He accepted chemical castration via oestrogen hormone injections and was found dead on 12 June 1954, with suicide or poisoning both questioned. 

We now leave in a fairer society where homosexuallity is no longer a crime and gay rights have come to the forefront politically. Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged a petition, to posthumously apologise to Alan Turing for prosecuting him as a homosexual, by releasing a statement on 10 September 2009 apologising and describing Turing's treatment as "appalling". This shows the country has moved on in the right direction and heroes and inventors are noted for their work not their lives. Even the Royal Mail announced in early 2012 that a British postage stamp in the Royal Mail "Britons of Distinction" series would feature Turing.

Communication that began in Cornwall

   1870 appears such a long time as so much happened during the last century and first decade of the 21st. Many of us take all new technologies and methods of communication for granted as we have grown up with or adapt to them as fast as they are created. Even going back 15 years there was no Blackberry’s, I-Phones, Twitter, Facebook, Skype calls, wide use of mobile phones and text messaging. However even in this short space of time, it can be hard to imagine a world where some of us could cope without these new communication developments and networks.

  Back towards the end of the 19th century all these developments known today, wouldn’t have been possible without the telegraph and early wireless technology. This wave of communication technology led on to telephones, radio, television, the internet and fibre optics. It may appear surprising today that a small village in Cornwall, close to Land’s End was the place the first submarine cables were linked to Europe, across the Atlantic and to other parts of the British Empire. This Cornish valley was the hub of international cable communications until 1970 and stayed as a training college for the industry until 1993.

   The museum may only have been created through the charity, the PK trust in 1997, but it already provides access to an internationally recognised resource and has become a centre for the education of the public in the history of telegraph communications. Lots of work is also carried out involving community groups and schools locally. This place on the edge of England should remain as a great part of our history, and has created the significant world of communication we all know today.

   For more information: http://www.porthcurno.org.uk