Alan Turing was a British mathematician and computer scientist who played a critical role in British code-breaking efforts during World War II. In the World of Darkness, he was also an Awakened mage of the Virtual Adepts.
In-Character Biography[]
Turing was an influential member of the Virtual Adepts who first rose to fame within the Convention during World War II. While most of the Technocratic Union supported the Axis, the Adepts were opposed to them (although a fair share of Adepts later defected to support the Nazis) and by 1941, openly worked against them.
Turing earned his fame by cracking the Enigma Cipher that allowed D-day to commence. But his visions were larger. Turing dreamed of a virtual reality not unlike the Consensus that could be defined by equations and ultimately used to refine reality. To achieve this feat, he contacted the renegade Sons of Ether. In exchange for Adept-designed computers, the Etherites would do their own research with them, resulting in the first trinary computer. Agents within Iteration X noted that Turing became dangerously popular within his Convention and warned the rest of the Union. In 1947, the N.W.O. confronted Turing about his contact to the traitorous Etherites and his dream of virtual reality. The Virtual Adepts claim that the N.W.O. blackmailed him with knowledge of his homosexuality. When he refused to comply, they followed through on their threat, disclosing his sexual relationship with another man to the public. Turing was publicly humiliated and, in the same year, he died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Traditions claim that Turing was assassinated by a N.W.O. agent while he was within the proto-Digital Web, even claiming to have proofs of Technocratic involvement. According to them, Turing had uploaded his Avatar into the Web, where it is theorized that it could have survived. Some Virtual Adepts claim to have glimpsed a man fitting Turing's description in the dark corners of the Digital Web, or heard his tortured screams echoing from an unidentifiable source. The Union, particularly Iteration X, claim that Turing was exposed as a homosexual by fellow Adepts and committed suicide by himself.
Regardless of the truth, Turing is honored among the Adepts as their most elite martyr, with observances on both his birthday and the anniversary of his death.
Out-of-Character Biography[]
For the historical figure, see Alan Turing.
References[]
- MTAs: Tradition Book: Virtual Adepts, p. 18, 20-22
- MTAs: Convention Book: Iteration X, p. 27
- MTAs: Virtual Adepts Tradition Book, p. 18