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Preserving Alan Turing’s papers at Bletchley Park
November 23, 2010
As you
may have seen
, some key papers from British computer scientist and wartime codebreaker
Alan Turing
are up for auction today at Christie’s in London. Dr Turing is a hero to many of us at Google for his pioneering work on algorithms and the development of computer science. (He’s also an important figure for many across the world who face homophobic attacks and bullying, an issue that we have spoken about
elsewhere
.)
Why are these papers so important?
Dr Sue Black
, a computer scientist at University College London and a key campaigner for
Bletchley Park
, where Dr Turing worked, explains: “The lot includes codebreaker Max Newman's copies of many of Turing's papers. Some of the papers have on them comments from Newman, a friend of Turing’s who testified in his defence at
his trial
. These papers belong at Bletchley Park, home of the codebreakers, and where these two codebreakers worked together side by side, helping to save millions of lives during World War II.”
Sue asked Google for support in purchasing the papers for Bletchley Park, which we agree is clearly the right place to house them. As has been
reported
earlier today, we are backing the bid with a contribution of $100,000 towards a successful purchase.
There’s still a long way to go to raise all the money required; we hope that others will be able to come forward too. The deadline for contributions to the bid has been extended until 2pm GMT today. Anyone interested in supporting it should
contact Sue
directly, or go to
http://www.justgiving.com/turing-papers/
.
Posted by Simon Meacham, Developer Advocate
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