#Turing & the origin myth of #Apple's logo

Maria Konnikova has written an interesting piece in the Scientific American blogs called Hunters of Myths: Why Our Brains Love Origins. She focuses on the origin myth of Apple's logo and that, incorrectly, it is often believed to be a tribute to Alan Turing and the poisoned apple with which he committed suicide. She finds it fascinating "that Steve Jobs never denied the story of Turing-as-muse, even when asked about it head on. Instead, he just looked enigmatic." She goes on to argue that people prefer the origin myth to the dull pragmatic truth and that Jobs was happy to let the falsehood spread.
If you read down to the bottom of the article you'll see a reference to me and to this blog. I pointed out to Maria that last year Stephen Fry in his BBC QI TV programme recounted that Jobs had told him that the logo was not in honor of Turing - saying to Fry, "It isn't true, but God we wish it were!" I blogged about this last year.
I totally agree with Maria though, I certainly prefer the myth and am often reminded of Turing and his remarkable achievements when I see the Apple logo.