[alicebot-aiethics] book review

[Tamara Thompson]

Murder? Suicide?

I saw a nice history-twist pbs program on Turing last year that suggested
strongly that he was murdered.

So, all the yak on this topic made me ponder: if one pushes another to
suicide, is that murder as well?

Has anyone evaluated Neil Stephenson's great fiction 'Crytonomicon' for
related accuracy?  Curious.  I like his writings, though I tend to like his
nonfiction best. ( esp. Wired's "Fiber Optic Link Around the Globe"
article)


"Christopher Fahey [askrom]" wrote:

> > Only in hushed tones was it
> > whispered that Turing had met a tragic fate owing to his
> > homosexuality, but this was the 1980's, and gay was becoming
> > mainstream. Today Turing would not be considered mentally ill
> > for being gay, but his suicide indicates depression.
>
> His method of suicide was even more indicative of the extreme mental
> state he had been driven to, and the circumstances leading to his
> suicide only add to the tragedy of his story. According to Simon Singh's
> excellent book on cryptography, "The Code Book", Turing had developed a
> kind of obsession with the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and
> in the end he killed himself with a poisoned apple. Had he simply been a
> civilian mathematician, his homosexuality may never have been an issue.
> But as a military employee ("employee" is hardly a sufficient term for
> saving the world from the Nazis), it became a problem that the British
> government felt that had to do something about. He was forced to take
> some sort of preposterous hormone therapy to 'make him straight', but it
> only ended up causing him to develop breasts and likely amplified his
> emotional fragility.
>
> I don't like to see this story glossed over in biographies of Turing, as
> if this aspect of his personal life was something to be ashamed of. It
> is important for us to realize what a great crime was committed in the
> name of 'morality', and it adds to my awe of Turing as a man who
> accomplished so much under such difficult circumstances.
>
> Great review, Richard. I may read that book!
>
> -Cf
>
> [christopher eli fahey]
> art: http://www.graphpaper.com
> science: http://www.askrom.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> alicebot-aiethics mailing list
> alicebot-aiethics@list.alicebot.org
> http://list.alicebot.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/alicebot-aiethics