Most significant positive evidence
The dominant evidence concerns foundational computing theory and codebreaking that materially assisted the defeat of Nazi Germany and likely reduced wartime death.
Person
Alan Turing
The assessment covers Turing's foundational work in computation, wartime codebreaking, contribution to shortening the Second World War and the limits created by secrecy and military application.
This is a contemporary assessment current to 26 June 2026. It must be revised as later conduct and evidence become available.
Ethical assessment categories
Current published result
Overall ethical score
+69.73
Reasoned summary
Turing's record is strongly positive. His work combined exceptional intellectual benefit with direct service against a genocidal regime. The principal cautions concern collective attribution and the dual-use nature of computing and cryptography.
This assessment presents six separate ethical dimensions rather than one overall moral score. Each result must be read with its evidence, plausible range, confidence, disputes, exclusions, severe-harm findings and sources.
Most significant negative evidence
The score is moderated by the military and surveillance uses inherent in cryptanalysis and by uncertainty over individual attribution within a large secret intelligence organisation.
Read the full Alan Turing ethical assessment, evidence and sources
Six-dimensional ethical profile
The overall figure is the equal-weight average of the applicable dimensions. It does not replace the separate scores, evidence or uncertainty.
- Personal moral conduct
- +75.00
- Rights and dignity
- +50.19
- Nonviolence and harm
- +80.00
- Stewardship of power
- +60.00
- Wisdom and truthfulness
- +75.00
- Consequential legacy
- +78.17
- Severe-harm record
- No separate finding recorded
Assessment history
Ethical assessment: Alan Turing (1936–1954)
1936–1954 · Published assessment · reviewed June 26, 2026
Result: Six-dimensional ethical profile