It suffices to say that I have heard a great deal about your fundamental contributions to mathematics. “The man who shortened The Second World War by two years” is how you are frequently referred to.
I am not like the others. I am, like you , a creature of intellect. I am, like you, a fervent anti-Nazi.
I would have given anything to listen to your expositions about mathematics and computing.
Had I had the chance to know you at any stage of my life, I would have taken it.
And if it had involved some kind of penis touching scheme, I would have given it serious consideration.
You deserved to live into your seventies.
It may or may not be the case that somebody is saying, “The next time we encounter a genius like Alan Turing…”
There won’t be a next time.
If the State could have put the penis thing on one side, you could have achieved so much more.
And so I cry. I cry for the ways you were abused. I cry most of all for the lost time, when you should have been allowed to further exercise your genius.
But you did it. You cracked Enigma. I am not as intelligent as you, but I am intelligent enough to know what that feels like. I helped to fix the hole in the ozone layer.
You didn’t live to see the penis thing legalised, but you did live to see this conversation conducted auf Englisch.
You are my favourite anti-Nazi, after Primo Levi. We are accustomed to thinking of WW2 in association with unimaginable violence, but you taught us that you have to out-think your opponent, before you out-fight him.
This is not for your benefit, nor mine, because we are both philosophical materialists. I can’t address you, because you are dead.
May the memory of Alan Turing inspire every mathematical genius to come, and everyone who is trying to work out, in the midst of adverse circumstances, the penis thing.
iamhyperlexic 