How a Victorian mathematics don became a digital pioneer

The Guardian ^ | October 17, 2015 | Nicola Davis

[beaversmom]

With a steely glare, a starched collar and a pair of truly prodigious sideburns, he is the digital pioneer you have almost certainly never heard of. Now, 200 years after his birth, George Boole is finally to get the acclaim he deserves.

A prodigy with a penchant for self-education, Boole was a teenage schoolteacher who rose to become the first professor of mathematics at what is now University College Cork, in 1849. Along the way he penned two seminal books: The Mathematical Analysis of Logic in 1847 and later, in 1854, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought.

While his work has contributed to many branches of mathematics, arguably his greatest achievement was devising an algebraic approach to logic, using a system based on the numbers 1 and 0. More than 70 years after his death, the method was used to develop electronic switching circuits for telephone exchanges and Boolean logic is now at work in everything from smartphones to smart cars.

In a year of celebrations marking Boole’s bicentenary on 2 November, the Victorian pioneer will take to the screen as part of a digital arts festival in his home city of Lincoln. Narrated by Jeremy Irons, The Genius of George Boole charts the course of Boole’s life, from his humble origins as the son of a scientifically minded shoemaker to his enduring legacy in our digital age.

“The application of his research has been vital in all new technologies today, and he hasn’t been recognised,” says Virginia Teehan, director of cultural projects at University College Cork, who commissioned the documentary as part of the university’s Boole200 celebrations.

[SES1066]

As a former professor of mine said; “Boolean looks binary but it isn’t until it is!” Some times I had to substitute ‘T’ & ‘F’ for the digits to work my way through the logic!

[Professional Engineer]

Half of the 10 kinds of people do.