Alan Turing - Blog Posts

No offence, but Alan Turing didn't kick the Nazis' collective ass for you to run around saying that you're too gay to learn mathematics.

"Was I God? No. Because God didn't win the war. We did." Alan Turing, The Imitation Game.

If Alan Turing was still alive, the gays would exclude him from the community simply because he was too good at Maths.

Why is Benedict Cumberbatch so good at playing gay people who hide the fact that they care about others narcissistic geniuses??

Happy birthday to Alan Turing, they would have been 109 (and yes I choose to believe they would have lived that long).

Happy birthday to Alan Turing!

First Impressions of Defrag 2014

In just a few hours attending Defrag 2014 my skepticism about drones has been eliminated, early computing has become extremely interesting, and I now believe that the vacant/occupied bathroom indicators on airplanes are genius. Experiencing Defrag starts by being welcomed into an idea intimate environment with tech "swag" (goodie bags), refreshments, and an imitate establishment that we are here to share ideas and grow ourselves. These ideas are first shared via keynote presentations by professionals from across the spectrum of tech including Chris Anderson from 3D Robotics, George Dyson author of "Turning's Cathedral" and Amber Case from Esri.

When the word "drone" is mentioned initial things that come to my mind include military drones that are used in combat and the seemingly foolish idea to use drones to deliver packages from Amazon. A word that didn't come to mind was Orangutans. Orangutans... you mean the primate? Yes. Anderson shared a unique and useful application of drones is to track wildlife and their well being. Primates make nests daily and can be identified from imaging captured by drones. In industry, a practical application for drones includes surveying of farm land. From an aerial view farms can get real time feedback in their crops and react accordingly without wasting money on chemicals and waiting to see a result.

"Imitation Game" is a motion picture releasing on November 28th which follows Alan Turning's challenge reverse engineering the Enigma Machine. Dyson provided an excellent crash course in computing's journey, including Turning's contribution, from analog to digital. He shared most importantly the unbiased vision of the future of computing that was imagined before computing was born. A way computing can grow is by letting the computer make mistakes and learn. Reliability isn't necessarily ideal. In conclusion Dyson shared his vision for future of computing... 1) 3D computation 2) Template-based addressing 3) Pulse-frequency coding 4) Analog Computing

Technology can be overwhelming! Bells, whistles, and features galore. Sometimes we just want something to accomplish a task when we want it and not give annoying notifications. Amber Case spoke about Calm Technology that promotes "Great design (which) allows people to accomplish their goals in the least amount of moves". Airplane bathroom vacancy indicator is a calm technology approach to alert a user of information they need in an un-invasive manner.  "A person's primary task shouldn't be computing but being human."

How you can get involved...

Drones: Imaging of the future is surprisingly affordable and even available in toy stores! They can be picked up for easily under $500 and programmed to your will.

History of Computing: Often neglected in education, history of computing and technology is a way to look back in order to look forward farther. Research about the history of technology and find unbiased inspiration.

Calm Technology: Case mentioned a fun exercise where you design the most overly complicated piece of technology and try to "calm it". Get your product to be as efficient in helping reach the end goal as possible.

Alan Turing (June 23, 1912-June 7, 1954)

Turing was a pioneering scientist in the fields of mathematics, logic, cryptography, and more. His work was fundamental in the development of computer science and artificial intelligence.

Prosecuted and ostracized for his homosexuality, then a criminal act, he has been posthumously pardoned.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.