Comments on: Queerly Canadian #18: Apologizing to Alan Turing, forgotten gay icon http://this.org/blog/2009/08/24/alan-turing-gay-icon/ Daily blog for updates, news, links, and commentary from This Magazine, Canada's most venerable publication of progressive politics, culture, and ideas. Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:02:38 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Friday FTW: Gay geek hero Alan Turing gets apology from UK government : This Magazine Blog // Canadian progressive politics, arts, culture, and ideas since 1966 http://this.org/blog/2009/08/24/alan-turing-gay-icon/comment-page-1/#comment-5791 Friday FTW: Gay geek hero Alan Turing gets apology from UK government : This Magazine Blog // Canadian progressive politics, arts, culture, and ideas since 1966 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:50:01 +0000 http://this.org/?p=2307#comment-5791 [...] The apology came after more than 30,000 Britons signed an online petition asking the government to apologize for this injustice. [...] [...] The apology came after more than 30,000 Britons signed an online petition asking the government to apologize for this injustice. [...]

]]> By: Peter http://this.org/blog/2009/08/24/alan-turing-gay-icon/comment-page-1/#comment-5766 Peter Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:35:34 +0000 http://this.org/?p=2307#comment-5766 This doesn't have to be an exclusively British issue. We share a Queen with Britain, and as Canadians, it is perfectly legitimate to petition her on our own. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=134356507250" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13435650725...</a> This doesn't have to be an exclusively British issue. We share a Queen with Britain, and as Canadians, it is perfectly legitimate to petition her on our own.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13435650725...

]]> By: mgpcoe http://this.org/blog/2009/08/24/alan-turing-gay-icon/comment-page-1/#comment-5731 mgpcoe Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:16:00 +0000 http://this.org/?p=2307#comment-5731 Minor nit: The Turing Test never involved a Turing Machine; they were very different computational problems. Even the Wikipedia entry for the Test--referred to by the author--corroborates this; the phrase "Turing Machine" appears nowhere in its text! The Turing Test is a test of intelligence with respect to the conversational ability of a machine, but the Turing Machine is simply the most basic description of a modern computer. Again, this is clearly stated in the abstract of the Wikipedia entry for the article. The only commonalities between the Turing Test and the Turing Machine is that they were both thought experiments at the time, and that Alan Mathison Turing conceived of them. I applaud This Magazine for recognising Turing for his accomplishments, and for calling on the British government to publicly apologise for what they did to him, but the science reporting at the magazine seems woefully inadequate. Minor nit: The Turing Test never involved a Turing Machine; they were very different computational problems. Even the Wikipedia entry for the Test–referred to by the author–corroborates this; the phrase "Turing Machine" appears nowhere in its text!

The Turing Test is a test of intelligence with respect to the conversational ability of a machine, but the Turing Machine is simply the most basic description of a modern computer. Again, this is clearly stated in the abstract of the Wikipedia entry for the article. The only commonalities between the Turing Test and the Turing Machine is that they were both thought experiments at the time, and that Alan Mathison Turing conceived of them.

I applaud This Magazine for recognising Turing for his accomplishments, and for calling on the British government to publicly apologise for what they did to him, but the science reporting at the magazine seems woefully inadequate.

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