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Today, is very hard not to use a computer in our life. It’s something so common, so natural that don’t have one is almost a sin. We are so used to use them that almost forgot that computers aren’t so old. I even remember that in my school days I was almost the only one that had the opportunity to make my homework in a computer, I went to my father work to transcribe it and it was a sensation when I give it to my teacher.

Now, everything that we do involve a computer, even today’s cellphones are tiny computers in our hand, it’s because of that I considered important to remember the origin, one of a large number of persons that made it possible, a man with an incredible history, a, misunderstood person, hated, judged and punished genius, Alan Turing.

Alan Turing was born a day as today, June 23, in 1912, mathematician, scientist, excellent cryptographer and a philosopher. A genius meant to be the father of the modern informatics, thanks to him and his initial thoughts and facts we can enjoy most of the things in modern life, today almost everything works “thanks to a computer inside”.

This beginning is also the real origin to all those amazing AI projects that we love to see, robots, cars, games, virtual reality, make a stop and think what activity in your life doesn’t involve a computer, and then say thanks to this man.

Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
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His important role during the Second World War with the Hut 8 to break the code of the Enigma Machine was decisive in the results of many battles, some thinks that he helped to short war in almost two years, and estimated that his labor saved almost 2 million soul.

After the war, Turing worked at the National Physical Laboratory, where he designed the ACE, among the first designs for a stored-program computer. In 1948 Turing joined Max Newman's Computing Machine Laboratory at the Victoria University of Manchester, where he helped develop the Manchester computers and became interested in mathematical biology. He wrote a paper on the chemical basis of morphogenesis, and predicted oscillating chemical reactions such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, first observed in the 1960s.
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But sadly, he was born in England, in a moment where being gay was enough to keep you behind bars for the rest of your live. So, for that reason he was prosecuted in 1952, condemned to chemical castration and died in 1954, thanks to an accidental poisoning with cyanide. Just 16 days before turn into 42 years old.

To those who love movies, there’s a movie called The imitation game, it give us the opportunity to learn a little bit about his life, let me share the official trailer:

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My intention with this post is to honor him, to keep alive his memory and my very personal thanks to him to let me live in a world with multiple marvelous, I feel amaze every time I see what technology is capable to do, and imagine what could come next. I believe technology will help human to make a better world, to cure, to offer human being a better life.

Thanks Alan Turing, a misunderstood genius.