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> Turing made great contributions, and had a great mind. But we did not need him, or any other particular individual. > What do you think would have happened if
by anextio 12y ago
> Turing made great contributions, and had a great mind. But we did not need him, or any other particular individual.
> What do you think would have happened if Turing had never been born?
And yet, he was born, and he did contribute, and we remember him for that, and we remember what his peers did to him in response. And we learn a lesson from that.
Why is this controversial?
- jshevek 12y agoWhy is what controversial? Your preceding sentence? It isn't. Why do you think its controversial? And why do you think its related to my sentences? The only thing which might be controversial (but really shouldn't be) is the observation that people make foolish and illogical claims when they let their passions drive them to hyperbole. For example, claiming that computer science NEEDED Turing. That without Turing, we would not have computer science. Its simple. Worship him all you want for what he actually did, but please don't fall prey to the belief that "without so-and-so, X would NEVER have been developed". Or "without so-and-so, we would still be doing Y". Nonsense. Some other person or group of people would have made those contributions. This has nothing to do with how horribly he was treated. And if you want to highlight the sickness of the world by pointing out the genius of one of the victims of our diseased culture, that's cool, but we can do that without going off into a fantasy land where some individual was uniquely, in all the world, uniquely capable of making the contributions they made.