Our existence may be, but a fraction of light
If more exists of us, it’s out of touch and out of sight
My mind questions this, but my heart wants it so
For if that path be true, what wonders don’t we know
When our dust returns to dust, reclaimed by stars as we must
That essential being, left behind to see what’s true
Know Plato’s truth, yours shall of mine
Pure love endures, beyond space, beyond time
Alan Turing, born 109 years ago today, was one of the most important figures in early computing theory and design. To this day all general purpose computers (which most are now, but were not in the early days) are said to be Turing complete, a critical concept which basically means that, given the right software, all computers are capable of performing the same, highly-complex tasks with only the need to support a small set of basic instructions.
During WWII, Turing was an critical part of the team of code breakers, working at Bletchley Park (UK), who gave the Allies the crucial advantage of being able to read the Nazi’s encrypted messages.
In 1952, for the crime of being homosexual, Turing received the punishment of chemical castration. Sadly for Turing’s family and for the world which would have benefited from the continued work of such a brilliant man, two years later, persecuted by the country he helped save from tyranny, much of his work classified and unrecognized, Alan Turing, OBE, FRS, visionary, pioneer, war hero, homosexual, committed suicide by taking a bite of poison apple.
(Originally published as a Facebook Note in 2010.)
SETUP:
My former boss, Sheik, had been hounding me to find myself a girlfriend.
Sheik was thrilled that I'd be attending a wedding, as it's a great place to meet people (never mind that it was in St. Louis and I lived in Virginia Beach).
My boss, Jim, had recently started dating a wonderful woman whom we all joked he had met at a family reunion. To be fair, they're far from being blood relatives, but the trees definitely have some entangled branches.
I sent the following email shortly after the reception:
Subject: Status Update: Romance at the Wedding
Sheik,
Since you have encouraged me to find a girlfriend at the latest family function I thought I would let you know about today's events. This wedding was not one for the record books. My best guess would be 30 people total. Of that 30 only five of us were single. To make matters worse the only other single attendee that was of legal age was one of my cousins. While this would have stopped me in the past, Jim has taught me to get over such trivial things in matters of the heart. Although everyone did a bit of table hopping (no, not dancing) I was able to chat up my cousin quite a bit.
Then came time to throw the bouquet. This was a bit of a setup, where in my cousin turned around only to find what amounted to floral shotgun round being hurled directly between the eyes. While this may have seemed like fate intervening to urge me along in my pursuit, by the end of the reception the champagne had worn off enough for me to realize that dating a first cousin still holds some social stigma. Besides which he really wasn't my type.
-Justin
