6,000 sign e-petition to put Turing on £10 note
Mathematician, computer scientist and Nazi code-breaking hero Alan Turing could soon join Her Maj on the Bank of England’s new £10 note. Nearly 6,000 people have signed a government e-petition calling for the computer pioneer’s mug to appear on the tenner here. The petition comes in the centenary year of Turing’s birth. …
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Errm...
No one wants to "oust" Darwin... Darwin won't be on the Series F notes as he's on the Series E. Each Series has a new person for each note (for instance see the new £50 note). The petition is simply saying let's put Turing at the top of the pile for the next selection process.
Re: Errm...
Oh, okay then. Because I have massive respect for Dr Turing but Darwin? Darwin freed us from Biblical literalists and probably thus saved more lives than any other human being.
Re: Errm...
Look on the bright side. If winding up the bible bashers is your thing, then Turing's lifestyle should serve equally as well in this regard.
You'll probably see the real nutjob fundies refusing to touch the things for fear of catching gayness......
Re: Errm...
They won't even know who he was. As far as they're concerned the Nazis lost because God and we have electronic computers because God.
Darwin, on the other hand, that really gets 'em rabid.
Re: Errm...
Proof of this can be found by reading the reviews of 'Origin of Species' in the Android Marketplace.
Re: Errm...
You could argue Turing saved us from Nazis as well as inventing computer science. The U-boats basically had free reign over the atlantic before their encryption was broken. Darwin's insights remained purely theoretical until long after his death, whereas Turing helped win a war and started technology that's fundamentally transformed our lives.
Re: Errm...
@Tim Elphick: apparently, yes. Though I got exactly the same reaction once I wanted to pay my pub'o'clock pint with such a note.
Re: Errm...
I've actually seen a fifty pound note. Once. It was on display in a shop window.
In Toronto.
Re: Errm...
Sorry, mate, I'm on the dole. What does a £50 note look like? Could you kindly post a well scanned copy of both sides? Ta muchly.
Re: Errm...
@Tee Cee - your opinions of Christians are about as accurate as saying "all Muslims are terrorists."
Do try to grow up a bit.
Re: Errm...
"nutjob fundies" references a very specific set, I'd say. Does that include you?
Let's start a petition...
... to put George Osborne's face on Andrex Toilet Paper.
Re: Let's start a petition...
Is that with or without his tongue out?
Re: Let's start a petition...
Shouldn't it be with his knob out cause he loves screwing us on a regular basis.
Petition signed
althought an equally good candidate would be Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Crazy name, crazy guy !!!
Re: Petition signed
Apparently there was a £2 coin with Brunel.
Observes of BoE notes/coins
There's a list of the BoE note reverses here, and coins here
£2 coins are here. There were two issues in 2006 in commemoration of Brunnel, one featured Paddington Station; the other a Brunel portrait with the Royal Albert Bridge, Plymouth behind him.
Re: Petition signed
As long as they pick a different photo of Brunel, instead of the one in front of the chains of the Great Eastern that gets used everywhere!
Re: Petition signed
It's used everywhere because it's such a cool photo.
Re: Petition signed
It is a cool photo, but it's also one of the very few photos of IKB - and most of the rest show him as just a face in a crowd of workers.
Re: Petition signed
There were two photos of IKB in front of those chains (which was during the launch of the Great Eastern). The first was an "official" one with him posing self-consciously, and the photographer realised that it was no good. IKB relaxed with his cigar while the photographer was changing plates and then the photographer took the second without warning him.
The second picture was vastly better and is the one we always see today.
Wording
Not sure that "Nazi code-breaking hero" reads how it should do...
"Nazi-code-breaking hero" might be better.
Don't worry Alan
"a permanent national statue of Turing - such as on the fourth plinth."
Some day your plinth will come.
Re: Don't worry Alan
There's already a petition to put a statue of Turing on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, also a good way of honouring the man.
http://goo.gl/3lb6q
Re: Don't worry Alan
That's another keyboard down the tubes. One day I will learn not to drink coffee while reading the Reg.
Incalculable?
“[Turing's] contribution to computer science, and hence to the life of the nation and the world, is incalculable."
He might want to sit down and think about what he's just said there.
Re: Incalculable?
Thank you. I now know never to Google 'busy beaver function' at work.
Re: Incalculable?
Yeah, that was deliberate. Did you catch the reference to the halting problem as well?
Re: Incalculable?
"Did you catch the reference to the halting problem as well?"
I didn't at the time, I'm ashamed to say. A double-whammy! Good work fella, and an honour to meet you (Virtually, at least). Let me buy you a virtual pint.
Brian
I reckon they should put old Jug 'andles on the back. It seems to be the only way he will get his face on British currency.
Mine's got an ermine collar, thank you.
And what exactly
is the "understanding" of an anonymous person worth? If you have evidence, present it. Otherwise keep your slurs to yourself.
Underage?
Can't be underage for an activity that was illegal at any age... From what I remember of the story the boy was of age for a heterosexual relationship (16), although may have been under the age that was finally determined for consent to homosexual activitty (21?) when that was legalized.
Statue
He should definitely have a statue, I'm sure he would appreciate being on top of a long stiff column.
What about Captain Scott?
Given that this year (next Thursday, to be precise) is the 100th anniversary of his heroic demise, it would be a good time to honour him on the back of a note.
All that snow in the background would also save on ink costs.
Re: What about Captain Scott?
Scott was a a brave and courageous man, but I would personally rank several people ahead of him, even in his own field.
Ernest Shackleton, Frank Wild and Lawrence Oates to name but three.
"I am just going outside and may be some time" - Lawrence Oates, 16 Mar 1912
"For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organisation, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time."
- Apsley Cherry-Garrard (Antarctic Explorer and member of Scott's Terra Nova Expedition).
There Already is a Turing Statue
There's been an Alan Turing statue in Sackville Park, Manchester for years. I know, I helped pay for it.
Ganty
Can we have
Stephen Hawking on another value note?
Enigma was a cipher not a code btw.
Re: Can we have
Excellent idea, but not eligible until he pops his clogs.
Re: Can we have
If Robert Hooke hasn't yet featured on a banknote, he should be at or near the front of the queue.
Isaac Newton was a towering scientific genius but a fairly frightful man. He did all he could to bury Hooke's accomplishments, and took the credit for several things that Hooke should rightfully have been credited with.
Newton was also master of the Royal Mint, which is why is woud be such a good thing to honour Hooke with a place on a banknote!
Hawking isn't dead, and the tradition is that this rules him out. People are honoured with memorials after they are no longer alive.
Re: Can we have
-- 'Hawking isn't dead, and the tradition is that this rules him out. People are honoured with memorials after they are no longer alive.'
Unless they're Sir Alex Ferguson. Or George Reynolds.
Re: Can we have
James Clerk Maxwell (though there's already a very nice statue of him in Edinburgh).
Trying to remember who's already had their turn
Newton was on the one pound note
Stephenson on the fiver
Farady was on a 20.
Watt is currently hidden away on the £50
Time for Humphry Davy (did more than invent a lamp) or Joseph Priestley (the defender of phlogiston)
Faraday's mining lamp
Faraday invented Davy's safety lamp for miners, according to the biography by James Hamilton. Priestley, as you say, stuck to the wrong theory of phlogiston after Lavoisier had discovered Oxygen and explained combustion. There are plenty of other British scientific superstars, though, and it's about time they were properly honoured, like the French do.
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