wellbeing | O'Really?

July 7, 2021

Would YOU want to live in Alan Turing’s house?

Filed under: education,engineering,football,programming,Science,technology,wikipedia — Duncan Hull @ 9:06 am
Tags: 1912, 1948, 1954, 43 Adlington Road, Adlington, Adlington Road, Alan O'Donohoe, Alan Turing, alan turings house, Andrew Hodges, anxiety, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bletchley Park, bombe, castration, chemical castration, cheshire, codebreaking, Computer Science, computing, Copper Folly, cryptography, cyanide, death, depression, Derek Jacobi, england, enigma, football, footballer belt, gay pride, GCHQ, GCSE, ghost, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, haunted house, heterosexual, homophobia, homophobic, imitation game, Isolation, , Jack Copeland, Jonathan Swinton, Joseph Birr-Pixton, Leslie Ann Goldberg, LGBT, loss, Manchester, manturing, Marcus Rashford, Melvyn Bragg, mental health, nurturing your future, pride, Rahmeem Sterling, rightmove, savills, sexuality, Simon Schaffer, SK9, SK92BJ, spooky, Steve Furber, stress, sue black, suicide, The imitation game, torture, tragedy, tragic, turing, Turing test, turings house, wellbeing, wikipedia, Wilmslow, World War II

The blue plaque on Alan Turing’s house, commemorating his work in cryptography which founded both Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence as new disciplines. Picture by Joseph Birr-Pixton on Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/3aYW

The house where Computer Scientist Alan Turing spent his final years is currently up for sale. The estate agent describes the property on 43 Adlington Road, Wilmslow as a Victorian family residence of significant historical importance. Wilmslow and the surrounding Cheshire countryside is popular with Manchester commuters, including many Man United, Man City & England football stars. Even if you could afford its premier league price tag, would YOU want to live in the house where Turing’s life ended so tragically?

Turing was found dead at this house, on the 8th June 1954 by his cleaner. The cause of his death the previous day was established as cyanide poisoning. He was just 41 years old. When his body was discovered, an apple lay half-eaten by his bedside. 

The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.

At the end of his life Turing was suffering mentally and physically. The homophobic British authorities were using a form of legalised torture, known as forced chemical castration, to punish him for being homosexual. At the time, homosexuality was a crime. Turing put on a brave face and joked about his castration (“I’m growing breasts!”), but it must have been horrible to endure.

If you’re feeling suicidal or tortured, you don’t have to struggle with difficult feelings alone. If you’re suffering from emotional distress or struggling to cope a Samaritan can face your problems with you. Whatever you’re going through, samaritans.org are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They respond to around 10,000 calls for help every day. No judgement. No pressure. Call them free any time, from any phone on 116 123.

While everyone can have a good old nosey at Turing’s house through the estate agents window, no-one needs to suffer like its famous former resident did. Personally I think I’d find this property an enigmatically haunted house to live in, knowing that this was the place where a great man’s life ended in such tragedy. How about you?

Turing’s House: Copper Folly, 43 Adlington Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 2BJ

Rightmove details www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109329428
Savills.com details in a single pdf file bit.ly/alan-turings-house
Turing’s house in Google maps goo.gl/maps/krMM3A2JfgTUVFfm8
GCSE computing: Alan Turing: Creator of modern computing bbc.co.uk/teach/alan-turing-creator-of-modern-computing/zhwp7nb
Alan Turing’s Manchester by Jonathan Swinton describes what it was like to make new friends and lovers in the smog-bound, bombed-out city of Manchester from 1948 to 1954 manturing.net
Leslie Ann Goldberg, Simon Schaffer and Andrew Hodges discuss Turing’s ideas and life with Melvyn Bragg https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ncmw
Breast enlargement in men undergoing chemical castration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynecomastia

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Alan O’Donohoe for spotting Turing’s house on the market and to Joseph Birr-Pixton for publishing his picture of Turing’s blue plaque on Wikimedia Commons.

December 20, 2018

Dry January: Can you switch off all your social media for a month? #DigitalDetox

Filed under: economics,google,Googleology,publishing,technology,web — Duncan Hull @ 8:55 am
Tags: 2018, 2019, abstain, abstention, addiction, alchohol change, alcohol, android, Apple, beer, blogging, booze, cambridge analytica, Christmas, cold turkey, detox, digital detox, digital wellbeing, Donald Trump, drink, drinkaware, drinking, drug, dry january, facebook, festive, fomo, gin, google, health, health psychology, instagram, internet addiction, iOS, iPhone, january, jaron lanier, lose weight, macos, mental health, new year, panopticon, psychology, rehab, save money, self control, sleep, sleep better, smartphone, social lubricant, social media, temporary abstention, ten arguments, toxic, toxin, toxins, trump, tweeting, twitter, voluntary, voluntary panopticon, wellbeing, wellness, wine, winterval, wordpress

Dry January: can you abstain from toxins like alcohol and social media for a month?

Here in the UK, there is an annual tradition known as Dry January. It’s pretty simple, in the wake of all the festive indulgence (🍻), around 4 million people voluntarily abstain from alcohol for the month of January. Why? Because they can save money, sleep better, lose weight [1] and even raise money for charity in the process. If you haven’t tried it yet, Dry January is an enlightening (and enlivening) challenge.

But dry January needn’t just stop at alcohol. Other toxic social lubricants are also available. Have you ever wondered what life would be like without the distraction of social media? Ever tried going without? Go dry by switching off all your social media for a month – just to see what happens. Is social media as toxic as alcohol? Could going cold turkey (🦃) for a month be beneficial to your health and those around you? Switch it all off, meaning:

No LinkedIn
No Facebook
No WhatsApp
No Instagram
No Twitter
No Blogging
No “voluntary panopticon“
No [insert your favourite social media here]. How far you take it will depend on how you choose to define social media…

Abstention requires a bit of planning and preparation, but if you tell your friends now, you could experiment with switching off all your social media for the month of January. Will you be able to handle the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) [2]? Will your quality of life improve?

The idea of digital detox has been around a while and there are several ways of doing it. You can either go the whole hog like Jaron Lanier and just delete everything [3]. If that’s too drastic for you, try using blockers or timers set to zero minutes. Since the most toxic forms of social media are typically found on smartphones, there’s a few options for detoxing:

On Apple devices, if you’ve got iOS version 12 you can use screen time. Otherwise try self control or similar.
On Android devices, take a look at wellbeing.google and the accompanying Digital Wellbeing application.

Abstaining from alcohol can be beneficial for your physical and mental health. [2] Abstaining from social media could probably help too. Why not give it a whirl and see for yourself?

As this is last (and first!) post here for 2018, have yourselves a happy winterval and a healthy new year in 2019.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out
2. De Visser, R.O., Robinson, E. & Bond, R., (2016) Voluntary temporary abstinence from alcohol during “Dry January” and subsequent alcohol use. Health Psychology, 35(3), pp.281–289. DOI:10.1037/hea0000297
3. Lanier, Jaron (2018) Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Bodley Head, ISBN: 978-1847925398 jaronlanier.com/tenarguments.html

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