A visit to the Turing Memorial

Well, I’m not getting nearly as turned around, at least if I stay in the city center. Finding the statue took much less help from maps than usual and I didn’t keep going the wrong way in spite of them.

The inscription reads:

Father of Computer Science

Mathematical Logician

Wartime Codebreaker

Victim of Prejudice

And then a nice Russel quote on beauty in math. There’s something about the statue I really like. It feels like he’d be friendly to sit down and have a chat with. Imagine what he’d make of everything we’ve done in computer science since his time; although, a ridiculous amount of what we now study (at least undergrad level) can be attributed directly to him. Anyway, here’s to Turing, I wish I could grab a beer with you.

Finally, while I was on UMIST’s campus, I noticed something weird about maps out here. Look at the direction of north. It’s practical, but disorienting if you’re not expecting it.