Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Alan #Turing & the #Olympics - a missed opportunity

What a missed opportunity. Alan Turing's legacy could have been placed central stage in front of a global audience of more than a billion people during the Olympics opening ceremony at the weekend. Sure Tim Berners-Lee was named for inventing the web, but he couldn't have done it without Turing's invention of the computer. Had Danny Boyle, the opening ceremony's director, asked Sir Berners-Lee, who's famously modest, I'm sure he'd have wanted Turing to get the recognition and not himself.
   There's even a direct Olympic connection with Turing who tried out for the British Olympic team in 1948, the last time the games were held in London. His best marathon time was 2 hours 46 minutes, that was competitive in 1948 and is still a very respectable time. A genius scientist, codebreaker and athlete, what's not to celebrate!

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