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Turing might have committed suicide, but then again he might not. We shall most probably
never know. Perhaps we should just shrug our shoulders, agree that the jury is out, and focus on
Turing’s life and extraordinary work.
Aftermath
In 2009 there was a handsome and long-awaited apology from the British Prime Minister,
Gordon Brown:^19
While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time, and we can’t put the clock back, his treat-
ment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I
and we all are for what happened to him.
Then, in 2013, Turing was granted a royal pardon by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. At that
time, the other men who were convicted under the same anti-gay legislation—about 75,000 of
them—remained unpardoned (but see Chapter 42). Turing, who did nothing that needed par-
doning, might perhaps have preferred to be left among the unpardoned, as a notable example of
a man victimized by an unjust and wicked law.
The new fields that Turing had pioneered went from strength to strength in the years follow-
ing his death—most visibly computer science and computer programming, but also artificial
intelligence and mathematical biology. Fittingly, computing’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize is
called simply the A. M. Turing Award.
The Turing Guide is an introduction to the life’s work of this shy, gay, witty, grumpy, coura-
geous, unassuming, and wildly successful genius.