Without Turing, no computers; which country honors his 100th birthday?

You would think that the hundredth birthday of Alan Turing, the founder of modern computer science, would be commemorated worldwide with postage stamps. But nothing could be further from the truth. To date, I have not found a single stamp issued specifically for that occasion.The momentous occasion on June 23 seems to be passing unnoticed in the stamp world. Great Britain did issue a stamp in memory of Turing in February, but that stamp comes from the Britons of Distinction series. The stamp does not feature an image of Turing, but of the Turing Bomb, the decoding machine that he designed together with his team.

Surprising

It is actually quite strange that the postal service apparently does not consider it worthwhile to honor the genius Turing on his hundredth birthday. Alan Turing is regarded as the founder of modern computer science. Without him, we would not have had computers, iPads, iPhones, and so on. Turing has been depicted on stamps various times in the past. Saint Helena issued a stamp in 2005 featuring, alongside Turing, the Enigma machine can be seen. Tatarstan, an autonomous republic within Russia, issued a Turing stamp in 2006.

Study and the Turing machine

Alan Mathison Turing was born on June 23, 1912, in London. He studied quantum mechanics at the University of Cambridge, where Turing became acquainted with the 'Entscheidungsproblem'. In 1936, he published a groundbreaking paper titled 'On computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem'. In it, he described that it should be possible to develop a machine that could be used to process any conceivable mathematical problem. Based on this article, he introduced the Turing-machineAll of this would eventually lead to the computer we work with today. After Cambridge, Turing went to the United States where he studied for two years. There he also met John van Neumann or in Hungarian, János Neumann, a Hungarian-American mathematician who also made significant contributions to computer science, among other fields. Neumann later became known for his design of the first modern computer, the IAS computer, in which the CPU (processor) played a central role. The operation of the CPU is based on the Turing principle. Portugal depicted Turing and Neumann together on a postage stamp in 2000.

World War II

During World War II, Turing worked secretly at the Government Code and Cypher School. This service intercepted coded messages from the Germans. Turing was part of the team that used these by the Enigma device (a German encryption system) could decipher messages generated. This decipherment is often cited as one of the greatest achievements of the Second World War, which is said to have brought the alliance the ultimate victory.

A sad ending

In 1945, Turing was honored with the Order of the British Empire for his war effort, and in 1951, he was elected a member of the Royal Society for his significant contributions to mathematics. We can absolutely no longer imagine it, but in 1952, Turing was arrested when it became known that he had had sex with a man. Until 1967, this was a criminal offense in England, and Turing was even considered a security risk by the secret service. He was convicted and given the choice of a prison sentence or chemical castration. He chose the latter. On June 8, 1954, his cleaning lady found him dead in the house. Next to him lay a half-eaten apple containing cyanide. Suicide by poisoning was the official verdict of the coroner, but it is also claimed that he was murdered by the British secret service. He was allegedly too great a security risk because he supposedly knew too much about the secret codes.

Apple logo

The story goes that the logo of Apple is a hidden homage to Alan Turing. But according to the designer of the Apple logo, Rob Janoff, and Turing's biographer, Andrew Hodges, this is not the case. In any event, the story certainly captures the imagination.

A little bit of Turing's life

In 1999, Great Britain issued a sheet entirely dedicated to Turing's life, Computers in the Human Brain.

Posthumous rehabilitation and pardon

In 2009, voices were raised in the United Kingdom calling for the posthumous rehabilitation of Alan Turing. Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered Turing a posthumous apology in September 2009. However, Turing will not be granted a pardon. A few months ago, Minister of Justice Lord Tom McNally officially stated that a posthumous pardon is not possible. 'It is tragic that Alan Turing was convicted for an offense that now feels both cruel and absurd, especially when one takes his contribution to the war into account. However, the law at the time provided for prosecution,' declared Lord McNally. 'It is customary to accept that such convictions took place back then and not to wish to alter the historical context in order to undo an injustice that cannot be undone. But let us ensure that such times do not return.'

De Turing Award

That Turing has been of great importance to computer science is undeniable. There is even a prize named after him. A.M. Turing Award It is also known as the 'Nobel Prize for Computer Science'. The prize is regarded as the highest distinction in computer science. In 2008, the Republic of Guinea issued two special sheets in honor of the winners of the Turing Award. One sheet is dedicated to Turing and the famous computer scientist. Ivan Sutherland who won the Turing Award in 1988. Artificial intelligence is also visualized and the ASIMO robotFurthermore, the history of the Turing Award is briefly described.

On the second sheet we see Turing himself with the Enigma machine and the University of Cambridge, computer scientist Andrew Yao (winner 2000), computer scientist Alan Kay (2003) with the Dynabook, computer science-pioneer Peter Naur (2005) with the IBM 1620, Frances E. Allen (2006) with the IBM 305 RAMAC, computer scientist John McCarthy (1971) with the AIBO pet robot and the ASIMO robot and cryptographer Ron Rivest (2002).

More Turing stamps?

There aren't many Turing stamps. I did find a stamp of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from 2000 and one of Macedonia from 2004. Who knows, perhaps more will follow this year after all? Turing certainly deserves it!