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George Boole and Claude Shannon

George Boole

George Boole was born in Lincoln, England in 1815 and he died in Cork, Ireland in 1864.

In a book he wrote entitled, "The Laws of Thought", published in 1854, he described how humans deduce and make decisions. He also set this out as a practical mathematics of logic and probabilities. This work provided the rationale and methodology for reducing complex logical relationships to simpler sets of relationships which can reproduce all of the possible relationships from which the set was derived. This process is known as Boolean reduction. Boolean reduction is used to reduce the size and complexity of complex digital logic designs to produce workable logic designs for circuits for digital devices. The success of modern digital circuitry manufacturing, including micro-devices and the computer industry based upon these, rests directly upon the practical utility of the mathematics developed by George Boole.

George Boole's objective in developing this approach to logic was to explain how individuals use information and knowledge to deduce and take decisions. He succeeded in establishing, some 150 years ago, a practical basis for designing expert and knowledge based systems.

The essential contribution of Claude Shannon

Claude Elwood Shannon
1916-2001

There is no doubt that the person who was instrumental in pointing out the importance of Boole's mathematical logic to digital systems, was Claude Elwood Shannon. Claude Shannon was born in Petoskey, Michigan, USA in 1916. He graduated from the University of Mchigan in 1936 in mathematics and electrical engineering. In 1940 he gained a masters in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in mathematics at MIT. Claude Shannon died in 2001.

Although broadly appreciated for its brilliance, Boole's work had not found practical application. However, in 1938 Claude Shannon published a paper, based on his 1937 thesis, entitled, "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" where he explained how Boolean Logic could contribute to a more efficient circuit design. This seminal work launched Boolean logic into the digital world.

It is intriguing how the personal abilities of Shannon, with the combined expertise of electrical engineering and mathematics and who had been exposed to Boolen Logic as an undergraduate, was able to correctly indentify the contextual significance of Boolean Logic. In doing so he took the single most significant step in launching the world into the digital era.

Information supplied by the George Boole Institute http://www.boolean.org.uk