[ExI] Royal Pardon for Alan Turing

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2013-12-24 17:04, spike wrote:
> There is always value in doing all we can do to try to compensate as far as
> possible for past societal misdeeds and regrettable attitudes.  In Turing's
> case it is so much more than just the gay angle, so I always like seeing his
> work and his contribution cited in the public consciousness.  We often see
> it directing our attention at the gross injustices aimed at gays, which goes
> on to this day in many (perhaps most) parts of the world.  That should be
> cited as well of course.  I like seeing Turing cited for the other aspects
> of his powerful notions.

While doing the pardon right now might be a relevant pro-tolerance 
signal (especially given recent news from Russia, India and Uganda), as 
I argued in my essay (1) if you pardon Turing for being a great person, 
then you don't say much about gay rights (most of us are not as great as 
Turing), (2) if you pardon Turing for being an unfairly persecuted gay 
guy, then it is problematic to just pardon him and not the others. If 
you do it for reason (3) to remind people who he was and what he did, 
then it seems one could do it more easily without a pardon - a public 
holiday, a special royal speech, a television special or something like it.

Turing changed the world in a lot of ways. He made computation something 
*concrete*, something almost physical and tangible. Shannon did the same 
with the information. This is a conceptual shift that is pretty 
enormous. But Turing also made the mind computational - even if it is 
still a controversial idea, it has profoundly affected our culture. He 
was even on his way to make life itself computational near the end.

-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University