Crazy as this might sound: if anything, the analogy is a disservice to Aaron, not Turing. Both were hounded to death by legal authorities for behaviour that was, at the time of its occurrence, against the law. Was Turing a giant of computing? Yes, along with Church, Gödel, Von Neumann, and those before them (Frege, Boole, etc, etc). If he had taken to say biology, someone else would have come up with the idea of defining a mechanical process for the execution of an algorithm. I am not however aware of Turing going beyond activities based on his technical brilliance to acts of political/social consciousness. To me, the great thing about Aaron is that at his very young age, and despite his gifts, he already had better priorities and a better understanding of what makes progress possible than any other techie I know of (even perhaps including RMS).
2 cents,
—ravi
> Joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> Nice. I see your point Andie - and agree the Turing analogy was a stretch.
> Even so, there is obviously more to get upset about here. Doug didn't post
> it here, but Susie Bright made the point that his emotional state (along
> with public support for him, if not his actions) might have been part of
> why the prosecution hounded him. Either way it is a great loss and it is
> understandable that people are upset.
>
> Sean
> On Jan 15, 2013 7:50 AM, "Shane Mage" <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jan 15, 2013, at 6:12 AM, andie_nachgeborenen wrote:
>>
>>> I am stating to get angry at the misconceptions, distortions, and
>>> lionization of Jean Valjean and his case.
>>>
>>
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