906
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] dragontamer@lemmy.world 108 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Alan Turing, the father of modern computers, has an incredibly depressing ending.

Chemically castrated due to being an illegal homosexual, he died in dishonor over bullshit homophobia and new drugs that the 1950s possessed.

[-] RedSnt@feddit.dk 57 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And it wasn't until late 2013 that he was pardoned for the crime of "being gay", and ironically TERF island has only gotten worse since then.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 week ago

i find it hard to say terf island has gotten worse since the 1950s.

[-] RedSnt@feddit.dk 38 points 1 week ago

i find it hard to say terf island has gotten worse since the 1950s.

I meant since 2013, because yeah, it did get better for a little while. And now they're policing the bathrooms.

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 week ago
[-] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I sometimes still wonder why it got worse after. I think it's got to do with Putin invading Ukraine's Crimea and concurrently, spreading disinformation in the UK and US, causing Trump to win, and Trump in turn spreading even more hatred...

But that they could win was also reinforced by long standing social issues; the lack of proper and affordable housing, free healthcare, (and later, enormous inflation) for one!

In times like these, oligarchs try their hardest to indoctrinate the populace that playing out against each other is preferable as otherwise, groups they dislike get rights.

When these marginalised groups don't get into the news much nor that negatively (but do get support from politicians), and the socioeconomic circumstances are good for the bourgeoise (and the proletariat too), I think it would be much better.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

i would not be surprised if some decades from now it's common knowledge that russia is responsible for a very large part of the shit we're going through currently, basically all the far right parties seem to have kremlin hands shoved so far up their asses it's a wonder we don't see fingers when they yawn

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] match@pawb.social 25 points 1 week ago

but we avenged him by turning computers gay

[-] kautau@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Every UNIX socks post is in memory of Turing. If you don’t agree you’re gay. And if you do agree you’re gay too. Computers are gay and by using one, you’re gay. Jokes on you, by reading this, you’re using a computer. You’re gay. That’s the actual Turing test

[-] match@pawb.social 12 points 1 week ago

turing completemess refers to the idea that any computational system capable of universal data manipulation is completely gay

[-] Flocklesscrow@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 week ago

"For Turing," Aragorn uttered, a cock in each fist.

[-] lemjukes@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 57 points 1 week ago

Alan Turing was the father of computer science, but didn't invent the first computer. Arguably the first computer was called the Manchester Baby and was created by folks at the University of Manchester.

Alan Turing was an absolute boss, though. Huge respect.

[-] anton 20 points 1 week ago

The first (turing complete) computer actually build was the Z3.
Not many people know about it, because central Berlin in 1943 was not a healthy place for a computer.

[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

Yeah, the Manchester Baby was the first stored-program computer. As others have noticed, you can go down the rabbit hole a long way, depending on what you define as a computer. Fascinating stuff.

[-] zagaberoo@beehaw.org 4 points 1 week ago

I love how often seemingly simple questions just get fuzzier the closer you look at them.

It reminds me of the surprisingly deep rabbit hole regarding the first video game. People often say it's Tennis for Two, but there's not really a clear single answer!

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago

It was 1941, and not seen as valuable by the Germans.

The British built Collosus in 1943 and used it for code breaking.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 12 points 1 week ago

The ENIAC was before that and Charles Babbage's difference engine was before the ENIAC, though I don't think he actually got it out of design

[-] BassTurd@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago
[-] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah, there were plenty of precursors (hence the MB was arguably the first). But the Manchester Baby was the first stored-program general purpose computer. Gotta pick a point somewhere.

[-] BassTurd@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I think it's a fun debate between all of them. It doesn't really matter, but I enjoy reading the reasoning behind each argument.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 3 points 1 week ago

Not one I was familiar with, thanks for sharing!

[-] Honytawk@feddit.nl 10 points 1 week ago

Depends entirely on the definition of computer.

There are so many "inventors of the first computers" it is ridiculous. Almost like creating a complex machine like a computer takes a whole many inventions and people who worked on it over a time span of multiple generations.

[-] Armand1@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago

I don't think he's necessarily the inventor of the computer. There are a few possible candidates, including Ada Lovelace or Charles Babbage, who were earlier.

[-] First_Thunder@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 week ago

He’s the one who properly started computer theory, I suppose

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Babbage invented the computer, Ada invented the programming language that would be used to program it. She even wrote the first ever bug in it.

https://twobithistory.org/2018/08/18/ada-lovelace-note-g.html

"In her “diagram of development,” Lovelace gives the fourth operation as v5 / v4. But the correct ordering here is v4 / v5. This may well have been a typesetting error and not an error in the program that Lovelace devised. All the same, this must be the oldest bug in computing. I marveled that, for ten minutes or so, unknowingly, I had wrestled with this first ever bug."

[-] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

That wasn't the first bug; it couldn't have been because the term hadn't been coined yet. It was just the first programming mistake.

The first computer bug was found by Grace Hopper, and was caused by an actual insect that had gotten into the machine.

[-] melmi 13 points 1 week ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] jason@discuss.online 7 points 1 week ago

Lou Gehrig was the first person to get Lou Gehrig's disease.

[-] ValiantDust@feddit.org 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

While Ada Lovelace did not actually help inventing the Analytical Engine, she was arguably a greater visionary than Charles Babbage, who, as I understand it, mostly thought of it in terms of calculations.

This is what she wrote in 1842, one hundred years before the first general purpose computer was actually built (Babbage's Analytical Engine was never built):

[The Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine...Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.

[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 week ago

The first functioning programmable computer was Zuse's Z3.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] match@pawb.social 7 points 1 week ago

babbage: the calculator lovelace: the programming language turing: the computer science

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Alan Turing, the inventor of the first computer*, was castrated by the British Government for being gay.

FTFY

*Not exactly, but not to diminish his immense contributions to computer science

[-] Adalast@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Thank you. That part got my pedantic ass in a tizzy. Glad someone else mentioned it.

[-] TomasEkeli@programming.dev 23 points 1 week ago

Computing: invented by an incredible clever gay guy to fight nazis.

Honour his legacy.

[-] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago

A German guy called Konrad Zuse also invented computers around the same time. I honestly never wondered about his relation to the Nazis. I've just looked it up and he never was a party member, yet he worked for the military. Yikes.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Being gay didn't contribute to his death. How the state treated him when they found out did. Anytime his name comes up I think about how many horrible people there are in the world who just can't let others be what they are . Fanatics are somewhat evil by nature.

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 13 points 1 week ago

I named* my first self-built computer after him! Does this make that machine gay? They put chemicals in the bytes that turn the friggin' hardware gay!

*call me a weirdo but I do often name stuff like household appliances and my trees.

[-] yogurtwrong@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Can I see your homebrew computer? I am working on 6502 rn and this sounds interesting

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Turing is gone for years; got replaced with Midgard and then Tiberis, the current machine. Here's Tiberis:


inb4 my desk is a mess and to be replaced, and I need to clean Tiberis' guts. The pics highlight how dirty it is.

specs

  • CPU - Ryzen 7 5700X3D
  • GPU - Biostar AMD Radeon RX 6600
  • Motherboard - Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite
  • RAM - Apacer Nox, RGB, 2*16GB
  • SSD - Adata SU650 480GB, Sata III
  • HDD - a Seagate 2TB, I don't recall further info
  • Power supply - Gamdias Cyclops M1-750B
  • Fans - Aigo Darkflash DR08, ARGB
  • LED strip - Pichau MAG 200, ARGB
  • Case - a second hand Mancer case a friend sold me.
[-] yogurtwrong@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Oh sorry I thought it was homebrew as in built from logic gates. Cool machine anyways

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

Fair - what I said was kind of ambiguous. But yeah, "self-built" as "I bought a computer-of-Theseus 20y ago, and as I've bought new parts nothing of the original remains, so it's a new computer."

[-] lime@feddit.nu 10 points 1 week ago

ironically they also put chemicals in alan that were supposed to turn him not gay

[-] Honytawk@feddit.nl 4 points 1 week ago

The only one who can decide your computer is gay is the computer itself.

[-] TeddE@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Technically true, but as an admin with root priviledges, I can access system private keys and directly manage it's identity, such that it's choice is usually what I told it to want.

Tangent, boy I cannot wait for neurolink to let Grok in my brain. I'm sure it will lead to lots of new ways of thinking for me. 🙃😶😶🙄

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] AnarchistArtificer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I do think that this makes you weird (affectionate), and I hope you never change, because your weirdness is wonderful.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Hoimo@ani.social 12 points 1 week ago

A language isn't Turing complete if it isn't gay

[-] Tiger_Man_ 8 points 1 week ago

this is not actually correct, he didn't invent the computer, he invented the turings machine

[-] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

The movie was excellent

[-] TheTurner@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

I love watching Usagi Electric for old computer repair and restoration; including the restoration of the computer inspired by Turing's computer, the Bendix G15. Wikipedia article.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
906 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

16069 readers
802 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS