# What if Alan Turing Had Not died In 1954?



## BAYLOR (Apr 11, 2021)

In addition to his codebreaking and machines he developed for that purpose during the War which help require victory  for the allies .  He is one the fathers  of the modern computers, a genius way  ahead of his time . What if he had lived to see  and be part of the development  modern age of computers  ?  What impact might he have had , had he lived one?


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## hitmouse (Apr 11, 2021)

He might have lived to see the liberalisation of the UK laws on homosexuality in the late 1960s, and the gradual public and media acceptance of personal sexuality over the following 40 years, and the development of an altogether more tolerant society. He might have been able to become happy and free.

Assuming the above he would still probably have been unemployable for 20-30 years. Optimistically he might eventually have been rehabilitated and got a quiet personal chair in Oxbridge and carried on with theoretical work. Whether he would have continued with applied computing is an interesting question.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 11, 2021)

hitmouse said:


> He might have lived to see the liberalisation of the UK laws on homosexuality in the late 1960s, and the gradual public and media acceptance of personal sexuality over the following 40 years, and the development of an altogether more tolerant society. He might have been able to become happy and free.
> 
> Assuming the above he would still probably have been unemployable for 20-30 years. Optimistically he might eventually have been rehabilitated and got a quiet personal chair in Oxbridge and carried on with theoretical work. Whether he would have continued with applied computing is an interesting question.



I thnk that he been able to continue with computing , he would have put further ahead than we are now.


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## farntfar (Apr 11, 2021)

The problem with all questions of this type is that it could have changed everything.

Say he had created atype of computer and a sort of DOS before IBM, and therefore before Gates and Microsoft bought it and developped it. Which could mean they never developped Windows, or any of the rest.
Maybe we would be further ahead. Maybe we would have got stuck down a blind alley  with some other architecture for operating systems. Who can tell? 

 With no IBM, I might never have met la Farovna or joined the Chrons. So I can't say I'm upset that it all went the way it did, even if I do regret the appalling way he was treated.


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## AstroZon (May 18, 2021)

For his time, Turing was one of very few people on earth that understood how computers should be built and how they should carry out programs.  There were others however: Howard Aiken, Kathleen Booth, Tommy Flowers, Presper Eckert, John Mauchly, Grace Hopper, John von Neuman, and Turing's Bletchley Park co-pioneer, Max Newman.  I think had Turing lived, things would have turned out about the same. 

It was the invention of the transistor and subsequently the MOSFET IC that allowed computing to become what it is today.  Intel's 4004 CPU started a revolution that's still very much with us.


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## CupofJoe (May 18, 2021)

Tommy Flowers - a much underrated and under-recognised person.


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## paranoid marvin (May 22, 2021)

CupofJoe said:


> Tommy Flowers - a much underrated and under-recognised person.




Sadly I think that many heroes of WWII will go unrecognised due to past (and continuing) secrecy. Most lived (and died) without being acknowledged or decorated in their lifetimes. Which is a real shame.


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## hitmouse (May 23, 2021)

paranoid marvin said:


> Sadly I think that many heroes of WWII will go unrecognised due to past (and continuing) secrecy. Most lived (and died) without being acknowledged or decorated in their lifetimes. Which is a real shame.


My great aunt turned 100 this year. A few years ago she was awarded a medal for her work at Bletchley Park during the war. Which surprised everyone, since she had never mentioned it. Secret, see?


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## CupofJoe (May 24, 2021)

I know it is made up, but a scene in *Enigma* always gets me... 
It is when Tom Jericho [Dougray Scott] and Hester Wallace [Kate Winslet] go to an interception site [to look at original documents] and one of the receivers [WRAF or WREN I can't remember] apologies and then asks if what they are doing - writing down seeming gibberish all day - is important. Jericho is floored. He looks around at the score of young women and he realizes that they have no idea why they are doing it or why it is important...


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## Edoc'sil (May 24, 2021)

I was thinking the very same thing today, after watching a Youtube titled: _There's a Hole at the Bottom of Math_. I would have loved to have seen what else he came up with.


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