born in harsher, darker times
who thought outside the container
and loved outside the lines
and so the code-breaker was broken
and we’re sorry
yes now the s-word has been spoken
the official conscience woken
– very carefully scripted but at least it’s not encrypted –
and the story does suggest
a part 2 to the Turing Test:
1. can machines behave like humans?
2. can we? A poem by Matt Harvey, in response to the British government’s formal apology for hounding Alan Turing to death. It’s only a so-so poem, by my tastes — very Philip Larkin — but I love that last couplet a lot! I’ve actually been sort of writing around that question in my journalism for a loooong time … though sometimes the proposition is inverted: In what situations would we humans behave more morally if be behaved more like machines?



