[SIGCIS-Members] NY Review of Books: The Imitation Game -- a question

[Brian Randell]

Hi Dave:

A good question. I was a member and than chair of the Turing Award Committee a few years ago, and do no recall anything among the explanatory paperwork that we were given which would answer you question.

Cheers

Brian

On 22 Dec 2014, at 16:39, Dave Walden <dave.walden.family at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> With all this emphasis on Turing these days, including the 100th anniversary celebration a couple of years ago and opinions about how fundamental Turing was to how much that came later, I am curious if anyone knows what the ACM people were thinking when they named their award after Turing only a decade or so after his death.  Did they already see him as important historically as he is seen today? Did they think he had been a brilliant many whose life ended badly and who thus deserved memorializing?  ...?  I suppose there may have been some writing in the CACM when the award was named or first awarded, and I can go try to find that.  In any case, I am wondering if anyone knows what the committee members (or whomever) who decided on this name for the award were thinking.
> Dave
> 
> 
> At 11:54 AM 12/21/2014, Dag Spicer wrote:
>> http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/dec/19/poor-imitation-alan-turing/
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Dag
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