Alan Turing Memorial

[anteros_lmc]

charliecochrane mentioned the other day that she had never seen the memorial statue dedicated to Alan Turing in Manchester's Sackville Gardens. Since I happened to have a meeting in Manchester yesterday I went along and took some pictures. I can't claim it's a brilliant likeness but it's a really lovely memorial situated in a little park right between the university and Canal Street, the centre of Manchester's vibrant gay community. The statue was funded by public subscription and the patron of the fund was Derek Jacobi who played Turing in the 1996 tv biopic Breaking the Code.

The plaque reads:
Alan Mathison Turing
1912 - 1954
Father of Computer Science
Mathematician, Logician
Wartime Codebreaker
Victim of Prejudice.
"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth,
but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere,
like that of sculpture." Bertrand Russell

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

He is holding an apple? My brother and my MIL are both mathematicians and say that math approaches poetry. Never got that far myself, but I believe them.

[amaraal.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's an apple. Some say Apple inc. have their emblem from that, recording back to Newton, who is said to have had an idea about gravity when one day an apple hit his head :)

Poetry? Hm. As long as 'they' tell us 'female' that our brains are not made for maths and everything with a high-paid income seems to lead to something mathematical... hmmpff...

Personally I think, most male maths teachers are simply too daft to explain it :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I think any suggestion that "girls can't do maths" is utter nonsense. I'm prepared to agree that women might approach mathematics differently, but that doesn't negate their abilities in any way.

[amaraal.livejournal.com]

Me too. But it is a bit annoying, when you are a girl and at the tender age of twelve or thirteen your maths teacher tells you, that you don't have the slightest clue of what you are doing...
I think, I'm still not over it :)

Of course girls can do it, too. The differences between the male and female brain are smaller than we admit. As always - the roles we inherit from our parents and the people around us. We are our own worst enemy :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

The differences between the male and female brain are smaller than we admit.
Oh yes, I absolutely agree, there is way to much emphasis on how we differ, and not enough on what we share.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

I'm prepared to agree that women might approach mathematics differently
I'm not even sure about that. Any person in particular - yes, women as opposed to men in general - I doubt. Though it's a very private opinion, I'm not a psychologist / neurologist / whatever. But every time when I come upon the matter of 'women this, and men that', I recall the theory that men are weak in language. And then I think about all these men (wonderful!) writers... So they are disguised women??? I KNEW THAT!!1! XD
Therefore, I suppose all these 'theories' are more or less worthy as much...

My friend - a woman - just studying math, often talks about the art-like beauty of it. :)

I was to ask about the apple too, when I saw it. I'm not sure if it's the most lucky of choices, it somewhat reminds his death more than life...

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Definitely. See my comment above. It depresses me that we still seem to be at the "women are better at this / men are better at that" stage.

I'm not sure if it's the most lucky of choices, it somewhat reminds his death more than life...
There appears to be some ambiguity regarding the circumstances surrounding Turing death and I think in a way the apple is a symbol of that ambiguity too. I suppose the apple may also symbolise the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes, amaraal is right, the apple has all kinds of symbolism. It's also how he allegedly committed suicide, with a cyanide laced apple.

I am neither a mathematician nor a poet, but I once had a partner who was both and I can certainly see the connection.

[amaraal.livejournal.com]

Awwwww... And a rainbow mosaique :) *melts*

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It's lovely isn't it? :) The little pink patches around the mosaic are drips of wax from candles that were lit in his memory on the centenary of his birth at the weekend

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Mother in Law and I have our disagreements, but she is solid on women being smart and learning math and science. She taught calculus at Hartford College when she was a young post-doc.

She recently helped my husband pass his own calculus 2, doing it all from memory.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Very impressive! Interesting that you have two mathematicians in the family.

[ashley-pitt.livejournal.com]

Good show, Sir Derek!

Lovely memorial.
And I heard the the APPLE logo has a bite out of it in homage to Mr.Turing.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! Just when I thought Sir Derek couldn't rise any higher in my estimation! I have been a huge fan ever since seeing I, Claudius at an impressionable age.

[ashley-pitt.livejournal.com]

I love I, Claudius. there is a scene with Claudius and his grandmother ( perhaps in Poison Is Queen) where Claudius is drinking a lot of wine to fortify himself. His Grandmother says "You have lost your stutter, I see"
And in the shadow that passes across DJ's eyes we know that Claudius knows that his Grandmother know that he knows that she knows that he is not an idiot.

Marvelous bit of acting

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

The entire series is marvelously acted! I re-watched it a couple of years ago, having not seen it since it was first shown on tv in 1976 when I was a kid, and I was blown away by how brilliant it is. The power of some of the performances is incredible.

Btw, there's an interesting little connection between I, Claudius and Hornblower...

[esteven]

He certainly deserves that statue. There's been rumours recently that he did not commit suicide.

Did you attempt the Google logo a few days ago?

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

His mother believed it was an accident - he did chemical experiments, was very careless and always had his fingers in his mouth. There's also a murder theory.

Sorry - being Turing boring again.

Love the statue, even though it doesn't really seem to look like him. Rightly untidy, though.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is boring at all. The brother said the mother never seemed to get that Turing was gay. She was, I think, criminally blind.

If it was gaseous cyanide produced by accident he may not have been able to smell it. But it is hard to really believe he could be so careless without some element of self-neglect.

The picture of him as a little guy makes me think of Orlando at the beach with his grandmother. I hope little Turing had some happy childhood days at least.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

I think he did have some happy days, especially with his parents.

He was clearly (like Orlando) somewhere on at the Asperger's spectrum. Always told the truth and couldn't understand why others didn't. (That's how he ended up being prosecuted - he told the police he'd broken the law and they'd have had little choice but to charge him.)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Somehow I can't help feeling that in some ways the world just wasn't quite ready for Alan Turing. Though in other ways, he arrived in this world just in time to save many, many lives.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I suppose we'll never know for sure what really happened.

Glad you like the statue. I dashed all the way from the bottom of Oxford Road to take a few snaps before running for the train!

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

Ah. True fangirl devotion. Thank you for doing it.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Always a pleasure ma'am! I had been meaning to go and pay my respects for some time anyway. I've passed this park dozens of times but had never been in to see the memorial.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

There's been rumours recently that he did not commit suicide.
Yes I saw an article about that on the bbc. Interesting theory.

Did you attempt the Google logo a few days ago?
I saw it and I played around with it for a bit, but tbh I hadn't really got a clue what to do with it!

[esteven]

I realized what they wanted, but saw no way on how to do it no matter how many buttons I tried to click... But it was a nice idea

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

Poor man. They should have just left him alone. :(

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Even if he never had the recognition he warranted during his lifetime, at the very least he deserved to be able to live his life in peace.