Mathematician, computer scientist, and WWII code breaker Alan Turing, who established the theoretical foundation for just about every modern computing device, was born #OTD in 1912. His work helped make it possible for you to read this.
The British government prosecuted him for being gay, a monstrous act that eventually led to Turing’s death by suicide. Then they waited over 60 years before issuing a pardon.
Image: The Guardian
@mcnees Of the many things to love about Turing's work, the actual technical details of his path to breaking Enigma are some of the most delightful.
Studying his Enigma work this last year, I learned of a probability unit he invented that he called a Ban, which he defined as "the smallest change in the weight of evidence that is directly detectible to human intuition." It was named after Banbury, where there was a small printing shop which produced paper strips for his Bayesean "Banburismos" early manual calculation techniques.
Turing posessed an amazing combination of wildly inventive and stunningly effective thinking.
Robert McNees
Righteous Hazard