Never have we owed so much to just one
With humble gratitude so badly sung
Did we treat you as man or as machine?
In shadows of greatness we could not tread
We only saw a short distance ahead
But you saw all that needed to be done
After victory, you prefaced deep blue
Then in nature you found your patterns too
The machine by your name may never stop
Yet debtors found you so easy to drop
Your life and work came at the greatest cost
A pardon came too late to save what’s lost.
Alan Turing, aged 16 (Photo credit: public domain)
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