George Boole and Henry Edward Roberts: Two Computing Greats
Think about how many times you pick up your smartphone in a day — would it be around ten, twenty, or maybe even thirty times per day? If you own an iPhone, you may not need to think. Introduced in iOS 12, Screen Time tracks a variety of usage data on Apple devices, including app usage, daily pickups, and notifications. For me, the number of pickups hovers around 80–100 times per day, depending on how busy or bored I am.
Even though I use my phone nearly 100 times per day on average, I’ve never stopped to really think or learn about the people that made such digital technologies possible.
For those of you who are also in CI2311W, this week’s video and readings gave some insight on a few of the people that made modern tech possible such as Ada Lovelace, Dr. Philip Emeagwali, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and more. Yet, there are still dozens of names that weren’t mentioned. While it may be impossible to note everybody that contributed to the development of digital technology, I believe that there’s a few noteworthy individuals that must be discussed within the topic.
Having said that, I present to you two other people that influenced the development of the computer, internet, and digital technologies:
George Boole (1815–1864)
George Boole was a 19th century English mathematician and father of Boolean algebra. Boolean algebra centers around the use of math as an expression of logic, with the values of 1 and 0 corresponding to “true” and “false,” respectively. In the early 20th century, MIT engineer Claude Shannon would use Boolean logic to develop the earliest electronic circuits and computers. Without the work of George Boole, computers and any other technologies that use electronic circuits may not exist. Even today, modern digital electronics rely on Boolean circuitry and all programing languages incorporate Boolean logic.
An interesting fact is that George Boole was actually a contemporary of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. Boole actually met with Babbage at the Great London Exposition of 1862, and they discussed Babbage’s Analytical Engine. While in the end, Boole didn’t contribute to the development of the Analytical Engine, it could’ve happened.
Henry Edward Roberts (1941–2010)
While Charles Babbage may be considered the father of the computer, Henry Edward Roberts is considered the father of the personal computer. Before the mid-to-late 1970s, computers were expensive and not available to the general public. In 1974, Roberts and his team at Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) developed the Altair 8800, considered to be the first widely-available personal computer. The release of the Altair 8800 marked the beginning of the personal computer revolution and modern computing. Without Henry Edward Roberts and the Altair 8800, we may not have desktop and laptop computers.
After the release of the Altair 8800 in 1975, two young programmers contacted Roberts about creating interpreter software for the 8800. After viewing a demonstration of the interpreter, Roberts hired the two to work on and improve the program. These two programmers — Paul Allen and Bill Gates — would later go on to create Microsoft and forever change the world of computing.
Others
George Boole and Henry Edward Roberts are only two of the people that have influenced the development of computers, the internet, and digital electronics. If you’re interested, feel free to explore the lives of Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, or Linus Torvalds.
