Why was Alan Turing a significant figure?

Answer 1

As quoted from simple English Wikipedia...

"Alan Mathison Turing (June 23, 1912 - June 7, 1954) was an English mathematician and computer scientist.

He was one of the first people to work with modern digital computers. He was the first person to think of using a computer for different things. He told people that computers could run different programs. Turing introduced the idea of a Turing machine in 1936. The machine was imaginary, and ran a set of commands.

Turing also thought of the Turing test. The Turing test is a test to see if a person can tell the difference between another person and a computer.

During the Second World War, Turing was a main participant in the efforts to break German ciphers. On the basis of cryptanalysis he helped to break both the Enigma machine and the Lorenz SZ 40/42 (a teletype cipher attachment codenamed "Tunny" by the British), and was, for a time, head of Hut 8, the section responsible for reading German naval signals.

Alan Turing was a gay man. In 1952, Turing admitted having sex with a man. At that time in England, homosexuality was a crime. He was tried and convicted of this crime in a British court. and was forced to make a choice. He had to choose between going to jail or "chemical castration" (taking female hormones like estrogen to lower his sex drive). He chose the hormones. But this made him impotent (unable to have sex) and made him grow breasts. After suffering these effects for two years, he committed suicide (killed himself) with an apple poisoned with cyanide in 1954.

The treatment forced on him is now believed to be very wrong, going against medical ethics and international laws of human rights, and malpractice by most doctors."