[ExI] turing again

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2013-07-20 23:52, David Lubkin wrote:
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/19/enigma-codebreaker-alan-turing-posthumous-pardon?INTCMP=SRCH> 
>
> Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing to be given posthumous pardon
>
>
> Although I have no particular objection, I'm not big on posthumous 
> pardons.

Me neither. They don't make much sense legally or ethically (except 
perhaps in a few particular cases), and the arguments used to motivate 
them are often bad: 
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/12/sui-generis-or-generic-gay-pardoning-alan-turing/

>
> I'd rather Turing be given an extraordinary honor, e.g., a posthumous 
> award of a hereditary peerage, making him superior to his brother (Sir 
> John Leslie Turing, 11th Baronet of Forevan). Or the Order of the 
> Garter, the highest order of chivalry, previously bestowed on 
> Churchill and Thatcher.
>
> I have no clue about what's possible and what's involved. But I'm 
> looking for a grand, unmistakable gesture.

As I argue in the above essay, the problem is that a pardon or honor 
doesn't help Turing, and any grand gesture is likely to be strongly 
attached to the awesome person Turing rather than the mistreated 
homosexual, so it will not have much positive effect on people and 
society in general as signalling. The gay marriage bill (it got Royal 
Assent on Wednesday) is going to have much bigger effects than anything 
done in the name of Turing.


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