Great piece. I fully support a commemoration of Turing on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth, and I think we should get him on the new tenners... however I personally disagree with pardoning him.

I think it implies he did something wrong that needs pardoning, whitewashes the horrible attitude the UK govt. had to homosexuality at the time and is unfair to all the other persecuted gay people at the time who didn't manage to win the second world war and invent computers.

(Wow, when you put it like that the man was a total DUDE!)

It wasn't just the persecution of Turing for private sexual activity with a consenting partner, it was the jaw dropping stupidity. Turing not only helped to shorten the war but he had so much more to offer the country. He was still a young man when he was persecuted to death.

Compare and contrast with the treatment of Werner Von Braun who shortly before the war was helping to design an intercontinental ballistic missile with which to attack the USA. He ended up in the states being feted as hero for his contribution the America's space programme. But of course he wasn't homosexual.

Who knows what Turing would have gone on to accomplish had he not been persecuted to death by the idiot UK state?

I wonder if Turing would get a University place today with admissions procedures which insist students must be well-rounded individuals. It seems that we are ever more insistent on everyone being the same, while pretending that the surface variety of fashion actually constitutes a difference.
Homosexuality may be accepted in adult society, but now that children are more aware of it than ever before "gay" is a favourite taunt and any deviation from the norm ruthlessly sought out and pounced upon.

It is not at all clear to me that Alan Turing's death from eating a cyanide laced apple was actually suicide. The convention wisdom in western security services at that time was that all homosexuals were vulnerable to seduction, entrapment and blackmail by the KGB, although there is no evidence that this ever really happened. The logic is also faulty. How could gays be blackmailed if they had already been outed?

Nevertheless, like Mr. Kelly in our own time, Alan Turing may have been considered a risk, an embarrassment and a threat to be eliminated by the security services. If so, some record of this action probably survives in secret archives.

Afterwards, I spotted one small lad in the cluster of questioners around me, and asked "how old are you?" When he replied "13", I couldn't help commenting: "But you can't have understood much." He looked fiercely serious and retorted "I understood everything!!". Maybe another little Turing in the making, I thought, somewhat abashed.

With all due respect, Professor Cooper, abashed you certainly should be. You doubtless meant well, but there is no more discouraging, harmful, mind-abasing, soul-destroying phrase than "You can't", especially when pronounced by someone whom we look up to. Perhaps you are a more "research-oriented" professor, and therefore not concerned with teaching, and so could not care less about those who are to be the professors of the future. Thankfully, this young man stood up to you and you noticed that. You might not have done so if he had meekly accepted your comment as the truth: you would have "switched off another brain" without knowing it.

With all the empathise on graduates being team players and having brilliant people skills, I wonder where the weird geek types are meant to go when they've left University.

Academia sure, but what about after that? Software development companies? Well, they've all became a swamped haze of smiling faces.

The different ones will always be cast out.

Soon the DSM 5 will call us all autistic, and because organisations want to 'cure' autism we will be bullied by autism parents telling us to shut up! I see it happening because I already see HFAs getting bullied.

Whatever you may think of my words though, send a donation to the autistic self advocacy network! By autistics for autistics!

Another intelligent person bullied to death for refusing to go along with the SHEEP.

It is still very common for geekishly irritating little boys and girls to suffer misunderstanding and routine bullying at school.

Well, it's is common standard at schools, that you have to dislike lessons, exams, homeworks, teachers, learning in general. You have to disparage the value of things that you cannot get (knowledge) - or it's going to destroy your ego. So pupils have to deny the value of school. And if there is another kid brighter than they are, they have to bully him, because he is bulling them with his intellect.

In a nutshell: If another kid is more stupid than you are, that's not a threat to your ego - it's even good for your ego. But everybody who is smarter than you are, is a direct threat to your self-esteem. So you have to fight them, before they defeat you. (And they might be even a threat for teachers.)

And lets face the truth, someone who is more intelligent than you are could make the better weapons, tools, and might even get the better wo/men one day. Enough reasons to hate them.

Only average people will be free of bullying, because they also don't offer a point that you can criticize. But everybody who is different is in danger to become a target. That can be your skin colour, hair colour, BMI, disabilities, pimples, linage, poverty, wealth, religion, style of clothes, the mobile phone that you own, the music that you prefer, the books that you read..........

So there is a wide variety of things that people might hate you for, and don't want to be your friend. And you can find all of them in every class at school, and in every office or factory hall.

Aspergers/ASD/Autism are not the same as gifted, or indeed genius. They are often confused, and it is of course possible to have aspergers and to be gifted. Whilst different, it is not uncommon to have both ways of being. The link between IQ and aspergers is a total myth. Autism does not mean a low IQ, and Aspergers does not mean a high IQ. I have one son who is gifted, and one son who has autism. My son with austism is bright, but not gifted. On the surface, my gifted son can look 'autistic' as gifted is a developmental difference, as is autism- so peer relationships are hard in both cases. Also, sensory processing dissorder is present in both conditions, the symptoms of which we wrongly view as "autism". It is a shame that this article is keeping this myth going.

You know, I can't put aside the feeling that the liberal types are only interested in Turing because of the 'gay' angle. It makes him a 'victim' and thus eligible for entry into liberal sainthood.

My susipicion is that if Turing had been straight, then all those earnest debates about being accepting towards nerds and geeks would not be happening -

But then perhaps I am just an old cynic?

........sorry, I have forgotten to mention, that these singularities can also be exactly the reason why people love you. - as it now happens with Turing.

" He refused to work at anything except his precious maths and science"

But in this there is an implicit criticism of the interests and enthusiasms of the others. That's what motivates antagonisms to exclusive eccentricity.

Not meaning to boast but at school I competed with another kid for "top of the class" each year. He was bullied, I wasn't. Why? Because I also played in the school soccer teams. In other words because I shared one of the enthusiasms of the others. He was simply seen as a "swot".

It's a glass half full, glass half empty situation. Excelling where others don't can be seen as merit to the excellent or as condemnation of the others. Guess how "the others" see that.

I suspect that, were Turing working today, he'd have had his funding cut because, while ending the second world war was an admirable end, he wouldn't have been able to sufficiently demonstrate to the appropriate funding bodies that computers might have a direct and immediate advantage to UK business and enterprise.

getset2go, don't you think your gifted son is quite likely to be on the autistic spectrum? He has sensory processing issues, and it runs in the family.

getset2go, don't you think your gifted son is quite likely to be on the autistic spectrum? He has sensory processing issues, and it runs in the family.

Of course he had an increased chance, but no..gifted and autistic are different and it is not hard to distinguish. They are not the same. Sensory Processing Disorder is associated with both gifted and autism, but having it does not mean you have to have one or the other.

<Later, according to brother John:

Alan was first class at beating the system. He refused to work at anything except his precious maths and science, but he had an incredible aptitude for examinations, aided by last minute swotting.

As Turing's centenary on Saturday 23 June approaches, all over the world people are celebrating the centenary of this odd and strangely inspiring British genius: the man who imagined the stored program computer before it was built, and who helped revolutionise our world with his thinking about the computer's capabilities.
/blockquote>

One wonders if he would have got any better a hearing today. True his homosexuality would have been less an issue(???)

But the rest of his unconventionality would have made him a prime target for ritalin, and attitude management especially at school.

His visions far from being today's sludge 'visioning on demand' would have been seen by the vision judges as also likely as delusions needing some Valium.

When it came to KPIs would he have bothered setting any and if so would these have been accepted by dunderhead administrators? If he had made it to the Academy would he have been given free reight or have been required to spend half his life in applying for grants, competing with colleagues to survive or attending tedious consultation meetings?

One suspects his basic nature as a rebel who clearly knew and loathed bull*&#@ from a young age but didnt understand the great of social conditioning which oversaw and controlled his life would have got him in just as much trouble today.

Coincidentally the other day I saw a repeat of the story of Oppenheimer - another genius who got shafted by the trolls of the Cold War, a model sadly for many of the present incumbents in positions of power.

Many thanks for the instructive comments and discussion so far. The level of interest in Turing and the issues raised by his life and work is very impressive. It's an honour for us to have Barry blogging regularly and every post on the the subject in the Northerner - which is only a very modest part of the vast Guardian website - has had a big readership. All of them have got into the regular top ten UK news most-viewed in 24-hour periods (this one is currently at No.4) and one was the most-viewed piece on the the entire website. So his influence continues long after his death. Many thanks to all concerned and warm wishes, Martin

The 'bright but unusual' may suffer at school, but can make up for this in later life. How? By going on to become quants, accountants, management consultants and the like.

Of course, you then 'suffer' at the hands of The Guardian and a significant proportion of its BTL denizens, but hey ho, crosses to bear and all that.

You know, I can't put aside the feeling that the liberal types are only interested in Turing because of the 'gay' angle. It makes him a 'victim' and thus eligible for entry into liberal sainthood.

My susipicion is that if Turing had been straight, then all those earnest debates about being accepting towards nerds and geeks would not be happening -

But then perhaps I am just an old cynic?

Or perhaps just betraying your own set of prejudices?

Afterwards, I spotted one small lad in the cluster of questioners around me, and asked "how old are you?" When he replied "13", I couldn't help commenting: "But you can't have understood much." He looked fiercely serious and retorted "I understood everything!!". Maybe another little Turing in the making, I thought, somewhat abashed.

With all due respect, Professor Cooper, abashed you certainly should be. You doubtless meant well, but there is no more discouraging, harmful, mind-abasing, soul-destroying phrase than "You can't", especially when pronounced by someone whom we look up to. Perhaps you are a more "research-oriented" professor, and therefore not concerned with teaching, and so could not care less about those who are to be the professors of the future. Thankfully, this young man stood up to you and you noticed that. You might not have done so if he had meekly accepted your comment as the truth: you would have "switched off another brain" without knowing it.

Yes, I thought that was unfortunate too, particularly as the piece was about how Turing had difficulties being stereotyped and judged negatively and how that still continues for children today. It reads as if Professor Cooper thinks children are not intelligent, as if intelligence comes to us later, which is an egregious error. It is experience of life and maturity they lack, not intelligence; and for a child a figure of authority saying "you are incapable of doing this/understanding this" is a chilling experience. They don't necessarily have the maturity or life experience to see that this sort of statements comes from the limitations of the speaker; they may be turned away from something despite having an interest in it. This child needn't be the next Turing in order to have something of value to contribute. To be fair to Professor Cooper, he obviously saw that he had made a mistake and that's why he recorded it here.

Tonkatsu is right, Turing is up there with Newton and Shakespeare, but the petition for a pardon is misguided and should be withdrawn and not supported.

Turing did nothing wrong and does not need to be pardoned. Like many other gay men, he was a victim of persecution by the British state acting on the warped morality of the established religion. It is the British state and the established church that needs pardoning. Having (very belatedly) apologised and more importantly having committed itself to rights and equal citizenship for gay people, the state may deserve to be pardoned. The church on the other hand is still institutionally homophobic and is still campaigning for state discrimination against gay people. Since Turing was an atheist, perhaps a petition for disestablishment would be a more appropriate way of honouring his memory and making amends for his persecution?

You know, I can't put aside the feeling that the liberal types are only interested in Turing because of the 'gay' angle. It makes him a 'victim' and thus eligible for entry into liberal sainthood.

My susipicion is that if Turing had been straight, then all those earnest debates about being accepting towards nerds and geeks would not be happening -

Yes and no. Were he not gay, then his life is unlikely to have ended the way it did. The treatment of him was appalling and it’s right we call it out. And it’s possible that had he lived a long, if eccentric life, his story would have taken on a less tragic aspect and so would capture the popular imagination less. That’s not particularly a liberal or PC approach – it’s one in which reflects a particular need in our society for storytelling based on emotion rather than achievement in itself.

All that aside, I think that the points being made in the blog aren’t about whether or not he was gay, and given that a lot of the articles about him do focus primarily on the end of his life, it’s interesting and refreshing to have another take, and one that remains relevant today.

It's a glass half full, glass half empty situation. Excelling where others don't can be seen as merit to the excellent or as condemnation of the others. Guess how "the others" see that.

That’s an interesting perspective but a harsh one, and one that rather props up the idea that one should conform to social norms to make others feel better about themselves. I suppose it explains why others feel challenged by those who don’t “fit in” but I don’t think it particularly excuses it, as I’m not sure that it is a direct, or even implicit, challenge to those who don’t share the same interests.

Taking a less sympathetic view, I’d argue that others see non-conformism as a threat not because it challenges the interests of others, but it challenges those who feel compelled to fit in. There is another path available, a more difficult one, that is not being taken.

With all the empathise on graduates being team players and having brilliant people skills, I wonder where the weird geek types are meant to go when they've left University.

I’m not so sure. I think the genuinely brilliant can make it, as while people skills get most of us ahead, I’ve met people with no social skills but still amazingly talented who have got there because of that talent and despite lacking the skills.

The real problem is for those who are very bright, but not brilliant, and lack the social skills. They’re the ones who lose out to the less intelligent but more charming folk.

The Bank of England should definitely put him on the next 10 Pound note. Given Turing's monumental contributions to the war effort, it would celebrate the fact that we have 10 Pound notes and not 10 Reichsmark notes.

I admit that - being gay myself - Turing's sexual orientation helps me relate to him... but I think this has very little to do with victimhood and more to do with shared experiences.

...an American study found that 94% of school students with Asperger's syndrome faced torment from their peers

For me primary school was a nightmare, with even one of the teachers joining in the persecution.

My advice for any talented and clever person entering the workplace.

Do not shine. Do not go the extra mile. Do not do your very best. Just do enough to keep the job, nothing more. Otherwise your co-workers will set upon you with a vengeance and will drive you into a stress breakdown because they will perceive you as a threat.

Do not shine. Do not go the extra mile. Do not do your very best. Just do enough to keep the job, nothing more. Otherwise your co-workers will set upon you with a vengeance and will drive you into a stress breakdown because they will perceive you as a threat.

Either that or get a job in a place that values clever people. Fortunately, there are still some about.

In my view the average person couldn't think their way out of a paper bag. " Normality" is not anything people should be proud of: it is everyone's intellectual responsibility to examine everything they have been conditioned to do as a child, and accept or reject it only on the basis of reason. Far too many people are just a product of all their childhood conditioning, and are made to feel insecure by those intelligent enough to think their way out of it. Most of what is wrong with the world is because of those secure unthinking bubbles people live in, and progress is only made by those adventurous enough to escape the mould.

Throughout his adult life, Alan Turing was befriended and protected by Professor Max Newman and his family.

Makes you wonder how many brilliant brains are lost for society and actually suffer from the "more primitive" peers because nobody fosters them according to their ability.

I don't believe for one moment this hype so often 'trotted out' by those saying that bullying ''is that in which the majority weeds out difference.''
Bullying is primarily a consequence of Jealousy.

As long as it continues, the school playgrounds (for instance) will nourish what can only be seen as a hierarchical difference and distinction.