Image via Public Domain
Great Britain has decided to make Alan Turing the face of their new £50 note.
The Bank of England Governor Mark Carney announced earlier today that Turing would appear on the new polymer note by the end of 2021.
Carney praised Turing as an “outstanding mathematician” and “a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.”
“As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, Alan Turing’s contributions were far ranging and path breaking,” he said in a statement.
Turing is most known for being the father of computers. He worked with UK crptologists to decipher messages between the Nazis hidden behind Germany’s Enigma code. Turing then published a paper introducing an idea that would later be called the Turing machine. He was thus a pivotal role in developing computers and artificial intelligence.
That said, Turing’s story isn’t a happy one. Turing was convicted of Britian’s anti-gay laws, which still affect many countries throughout the world today. He was then castrated as punishment for being convicted of homosexuality. Two years later, he chose to end his life at the age of 41 by eating an apple laced with cyanide.
