[ExI] Royal Pardon for Alan Turing

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
Subject: Re: [ExI] Royal Pardon for Alan Turing

On 2013-12-24 09:59, Will Steinberg wrote:
>> Bit late for that.

>...I wonder, should we now pardon Oscar Wilde next? And after that, the
various wives of Henry VIII?

>...Pardons are problematic in a lot of ways. I wrote about it last year:
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/12/sui-generis-or-generic-gay-pard
oning-alan-turing/
--
>...Dr Anders Sandberg
_______________________________________________


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.

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite hoping it would end war; it didn't.  The
nuclear physicists held out the same hope; the jury is still out on that.
Nukes may have ended one kind of war.  But now Turing.  His work led to
digital computers.  One might be able to argue that digital computers result
in the end of another kind of war, for as a result of digital computers, so
much traditional warfare makes no sense.  We now have a growing awareness
that current and future warfare will involve small groups of people down to
a single person struggling to break down an adversary or take her assets
using computers.  This means no explosions, no starving and shivering
refugees, no destruction of buildings or farmland, no physical injury.

We may make the case that Turing's work partially achieved Nobel's dream.
He is being recognized as a major contributor in winning world war 2, by
enabling the British to have a better command of information.  But we might
go beyond that, and say that in a sense vaguely analogous to that of Ender
Wiggins, Turing's work not only contributed to winning that war, it won all
of them.

spike