Father of the Digital Age

George Boole: 1815-11-02/1864-12-08

George Boole (2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was an English mathematician and philosopher. Boole’s work was relatively obscure, except among logicians. At the time, it appeared to have no practical uses. However, approximately seventy years after Boole’s death, Claude Shannon (an American mathematician and electronic engineer known as the father of information theory and cryptography) recognized that Boole’s work could form the basis of mechanisms and processes in the real world and that it was therefore highly relevant. He proved that circuits with relays could solve Boolean algebra problems—and employing the properties of electrical switches to process logic is the basic concept that underlies all modern electronic digital computers. Hence, Boolean algebra became the foundation of practical digital circuit design, and Boole provided the theoretical grounding for the Digital Age. (Image from, and text liberally adapted from, Wikipedia’s article on Boole, retrieved 2010-10-26.)

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