Alan Turing: A Man Forgotten and Betrayed by History

I just watched the movie 'The Imitation Game' and I thought I would share something interesting I learned from it! :)    

   Alan Turing, the father of computer science, led a top-secret project for the British government that cracked the Enigma machine. The Enigma machine was a device used by the Nazis during WWII to communicate in secret. The machine used code language to speak, but it was not that simple. Every day, the cipher (the 'key' to deciphering the message) changed. Due to this impediment, the British were able to intercept the messages but never decode them. However, by creating the first machine that involved machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, Alan Turing was able to solve the Enigma machine in 1942. His machine included sets of dials with each letter and was able to narrow down the possible outcomes of the cipher. However, during the process of creating this machine, he was accused many times of being a spy for the Soviet Union, although this was completely untrue. It is said that Alan Turing's accomplishments shortened World War Two by two years, saving an estimated 14 million lives. 

     Despite Turing's phenomenal achievements, he was convicted of "gross indecency" in 1952 for being homosexual. He lost all of his security clearance to work on his projects, and was subjected to a life alone at home and was forced to undergo chemical castration. On June 7th, 1954, Alan Turing committed suicide at the age of 41. This day will forever be remembered as the day that Britain murdered the man who saved 14 million lives because he was 'different'.