Comments on: Turing Centennial Post 2: Günter Ziegler

By: (Belated) Turing Centennial Series from ‘in Theory’ blog « kryptomusing

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:22:41 +0000

[...] Turing Centennial Post 2: Günter Ziegler [...]

By: Turing Centennial Series from In Theory blog | Healthy Algorithms

Turing Centennial Series from In Theory blog | Healthy Algorithms — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 06:08:29 +0000

[...] Turing Centennial Post 2: Günter Ziegler [...]

By: It’s here! The DiS Carnival #17 – PRIDE! | Balanced Instability

It’s here! The DiS Carnival #17 – PRIDE! | Balanced Instability — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:48:22 +0000

[...] it so that there is no reason to be in the closet for fear of negative reaction in the workplace. Günter Ziegler wrote a letter to Turing dedicating the Berlin Pride Party in his honor, which is fantastic. Irit [...]

By: anonymous moose

anonymous moose — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:25:46 +0000

To me, personally, there’s something very satisfying about this apology: the awkwardness of it, the fact that its wording actually hides the subtext “I guess we are apologizing right now, but it’s a bit weird to apologize for primitive idiots that have done these things, and whose world view in this matter is so foreign to our own”. In other words, the sheer weirdness of this apology is the thing that makes me feel good about it: apologizing for the mistreatment that Turing suffered is akin to apologizing for medieval witch-burning. There are still many ways in which LGBT people are mistreated in the world, and these need to be corrected, but the fact that the policy-makers and public opinion in most modern countries are so far from their counterpart of 60 years ago is something to be proud of.

By: Günter M. Ziegler

Günter M. Ziegler — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 19:43:02 +0000

Dear William Gasarch,
1) yes. (But admitting that it was wrong and indeed a crime how Turing was treated would set a precedent.)
2) yes.

By: William Gasarch

William Gasarch — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 17:21:50 +0000

I suppose the apology is better than not doing it, but I have two issues with it

1) What about other gay people in England who were unjustly punished
in some way in that era. They don’t get an apology since they are not famous enough.

2) Apologies like this always come way way after everyone who could possible be held accountable is dead.