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Thanks for the post Gary. I've been a dedicated fan of Alan Turing's for decades too. The story of Bletchley Park is one that I could re-visit a thousand times and still be utterly fascinated.
Like the treatment that Oppenheimer received (all around the same time of course), Turing really got the wrong end of the stick for his work. Their involvement in projects both utterly vital to the allied war effort must have been so incredibly scrutinised, under such intense conditions, that I doubt we have the capacity to imagine the circumstance now.
While their treatment can and should be dismissed as completely barbaric in our time, I wonder how we would have reacted back then when so much was at stake that subversives - perceived or not - were very much public enemy number one... especially when they held positions with access to top secrets. I think that over-reaction could only be expected with a world war having just taken the lives of millions of people and the promise of even more destructive power looming as they entered the Cold War years.
Our general tolerance to difference has come a fair way during the ensuing decades, but we obviously have a fair way to go.
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