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Celebrate the 200th Birthday of George Boole With Logic (i-programmer.info)

Posted by timothy on from the well-that's-a-lotta-boole dept.

mikejuk writes: November 2nd 2015 is the bicentenary of George Boole, dubbed the forefather of modern information technology. To mark the event 55,000 school students globally will be learning about Boolean Logic. Free lesson plans, puzzles and worksheets have been made available in English, Irish and Mandarin and schools in over 30 countries have signed up. According to the George Boole 200 website set up by University College Cork (UCC), the Irish university where he was the first Professor of Mathematics in the mid-19th century, Boole is an unsung hero of the digital age who deserves to be recognized as the forefather of the Information Age. An hour-long documentary, The Genius of George Boole, will be released on November 2 and available to view online until November 16. Although Boole did briefly encounter Charles Babbage during his lifetime he wasn't responsible for bringing together binary arithmetic and what we now call Boolean logic. That achievement is down to Claude Shannon who recognised the relevance for engineering of Boole's symbolic logic. As a result of Shannon's work Boole's thinking became the practical foundation of digital circuit design and the theoretical grounding of the the digital age.

63 comments

  1. True or False by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You need a whole class to explain Boolean Logic.

    1. Re:True or False by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 2

      When I learnt Boolean logic, it was called Boolean algebra. I think I can still remember most of the rules.

      It is sad that most people cannot apply logic to solving problems. With all the facts at hand, too often irrational conclusions are arrived at. That is probably one of the reasons artificial intelligence is so difficult. We do not know how to model irrationality.

    2. Re:True or False by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "It is sad that most people cannot apply logic to solving problems. With all the facts at hand, too often irrational conclusions are arrived at."

      That's because human reasoning doesn't work like we thought it did:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ

    3. Re:True or False by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The speaker, Orwell, is wilfully misrepresenting (almost all of) the people he criticises. There are huge gaps between how things work, how it was thought they worked, how we think it works, and how things should work. But (apparently) contrary to Orwell, we already know that. In effect, he's committing a kind of ought-is fallacy. And another one when he criticises other people's ideals, goals, pragmatic positions, and so on, because of the way things (currently) are.

    4. Re:True or False by grcumb · · Score: 1

      You need a whole class to explain Boolean Logic.

      Booleans? You either get them or you don't.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    5. Re:True or False by Freshly+Exhumed · · Score: 3, Funny

      You need a whole class to explain Boolean Logic.

      Not to be snobbish, but as for class I studied Bouillon Logic with Paul Bocuse in France.

      --
      I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
    6. Re:True or False by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      When I learnt Boolean logic, it was called Boolean algebra. I think I can still remember most of the rules.

      And when you've had too much logic, visit Congress, or any local establishment where politicians congregate. That's been a fully logic-free zone since at least the 19th century.

    7. Re:True or False by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well you obviously don't get them and you don't.

      Stands to reason, really.

    8. Re:True or False by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who get boolean logic, and those who don't.

    9. Re:True or False by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FileNotFound

    10. Re:True or False by CAOgdin · · Score: 1

      There is only 1 type of rational person in the world: Those who "get" and can use Boolean logic. The rest are zeros.

  2. Boole never came up with anything worthwhile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    implies that Slashdot Beta is a treasure.

  3. Or... by RyanFenton · · Score: 1

    Or, you know, don't. Both work. He's awesome both cases.

    Ryan Fenton

  4. One of the first computing devices... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... I ever programmed was the Minivac 601.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minivac_601

    1. Re:One of the first computing devices... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As long as we're on the subject of retro toy-computers, here's a shout-out for the Digi-Comp I:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    2. Re:One of the first computing devices... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I was 11, and it became clear to my Fifth Grade Teacher that I was terminally bored by the Math Class, I was set in the Corner and given this plastic wheelie thing with paper discs and windows and a scratchpad. I would rotate the wheel, a question appeared in one window, and the answer appeared in another. I was to write down my answer on the scratchpad, and compare it to what was in Window #2. I was to grade myself, since the Teacher hadn't a clue.
      This was "New Math", and it all had to do with Set Theory, Boolean Logic, Octal Math, and similar silliness, and it was even more boring than regular Fifth Grade math. I was working out the Eighth Grade problem sets before the Teacher realized that something had gone horribly wrong.
      About a dozen years later, I was working on Software and Hardware tools that connected different types of Computer Systems together. It wasn't even called The Internet yet, it was just the ARPANET.
      "You can't take three from two, two is less than three, so you look at the four in the eights place..."

    3. Re:One of the first computing devices... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You can't take three from two, two is less than three, so you look at the four in the eights place..."

      Thanks for the Tom Lehrer reference.

  5. For those of you that haven't done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Truth tables (formal logic that's part of the foundation of true/false - on/off - 0/1 logic that is, not 'spock logic' (what it can apply to also in search for truth) OR worst of all, forums troll "illogic logic" (ala strawman & what some call "Alice in Wonderland logic"))? Try it out @ some point in your lifetime - IF you find the time. It's more profitable to you in the LONG HAUL than say, gaming is (put it that way).

    To quote Mr. Spock? It's "fascinating"... & VERY much like a game, albeit a mind game though.

    Good mental exercise.

    It's hard (well, easy enough @ first with the basic ones, then it gets tougher). For those of you that did well in say, highschool level geometry (proofs & statements), you'll probably excel @ it.

    Funniest part is - I proved proofs in highschool my teachers marked me wrong on & when we stepped thru it, the dept. chair told me "I proved the proof itself", but initially? I sucked @ logic oddly enough - I had to really, Really, REALLY work @ it... other guys I knew (one fellow went on to Stanford's CS program, & I knew he was going to be good at CS professionally - you can tell who will usually) took to it like "ducks to water" - the gent I spoke of was VERY "spock like" (little emotion) & what I call a "left-brained person"... me? More "right brained" imo.

    Anyhow/anyways - there you go.

    APK

    P.S.=> It's where "logic is really at" imo & experience... this is "old hat" for comp. sci. degreed folks (even @ the Associates degree level) + I've seen Political Science majors even have to take it (for an Industrial Relations degree, which lends itself to industrial arbitration jobs usually)... apk

    1. Re: For those of you that haven't done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't fault that logic.

    2. Re:For those of you that haven't done by geantvert · · Score: 1

      Obviously, learning formal logic did not help improve your writing skills.

    3. Re:For those of you that haven't done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have reading problems. Others understood him perfectly here http://science.slashdot.org/co...

  6. Google's doodle.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    marking this event - http://www.google.com/doodles/george-booles-200th-birthday

    1. Re:Google's doodle.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All nations except the United States, where simple logic puzzles are too much for the average American to grasp. Nice.

  7. I can tell you one thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...the UK Government, or, indeed, anyone in the UK, will NOT be celebrating this centenary. We don't recognise our scientists.

    As an aside, 2015 is the 800th anniversary of the birth of Roger Bacon, a British Franciscan friar who was pivotal in the early development of the Scientific Method. It is arguable that he 'invented science' - certainly there are few others of whom this could be said. And yet the entire British (and World) academic community have completely ignored the passage of this date.

    1. Re:I can tell you one thing... by ledow · · Score: 0

      Generally speaking, you just can't.

      To explain who these people are and what they did takes forever. There are more than 365.25 of them, in any single field you choose. And geographers want famous geographers celebrated and historians want famous events and people celebrated, and sportsmen want famous sporting achievements celebrated.

      Mathematics says you can't simply have a day-long recognition of all these people on any particular anniversary and, let's be honest, 800 years is both inaccurate enough to be useless (pre-Gregorian calendars, so the date is almost certainly adjusted or wrong) and why 800? Why not 750? And so on.

      Like Google Doodles, which are one of the best ways to provide people with an "on this day" piece of trivia, there's just too much that's relevant to you but not to anybody else and you could fill every day a thousand times over. Just look at the barest of Wikipedia articles for a particular date and it will be pages and pages long. Do we celebrate their birth? Their death? The date of their achievement? Or, like Ada Lovelace recently, a chosen day for them because their real birthday would be overlooked by Christmas (I'm not even fucking kidding!).

      So, people, stop talking bollocks. You can't remember everyone and everything, and there are a lot of people worth celebrating, and a lot of possible dates to celebrate them on and who we choose to celebrate is personal.

      Yes, I'm about to draft a Facebook post to let my friends know about George Boole, and I work in schools. You can be sure I'm going to be nudging the IT teacher to mention Boole tomorrow (in the UK, that's when the anniversary really is) in his lessons, like I did with Lovelace. But for precisely what it is - a "did you know" fact. A QI trinket. A piece of trivia.

      Celebrate the achievements, but not the fucking date.

    2. Re:I can tell you one thing... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      There should be a day that isn't this day or that day or his day or her day.

      International "it's just an ordinary fucking day" day.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:I can tell you one thing... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      We don't recognise our scientists.

      We have Darwin on our £10 bank note.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  8. Thanks, but "faulting" myself now... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Correcting my 'p.s.' a wee bit (not Poly-Sci but IR/Industrial Relations) - that's what I get for quoting things from 30 or so years ago in my life & for being 50 (never going to have that "sub 39 mind" or body, ever again - sometimes, I slip (maybe due to more in my head now by far vs. then, & some stuff has to be "shoved out/deleted" from the mental harddrive so-to-speak - the price, is this sometimes).

    * :)

    (Anyhow/anyways - correcting MYSELF before any of you do... lol, "can't have THAT", now can we? Not if I can help it...)

    APK

    P.S.=> Like I said though - Formal Logic in truth tables? It can be a REAL riot, a REAL struggle, but really fun in the end, for possibly even bettering yourself (that, imo, is part of your duty as a human being, along with creating "little revolutions" that change the world for the BETTER, if you can)... apk

  9. Logic is sorely missing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't count the number of times I've had to ask someone, "In what you're saying, do you mean OR or AND," and they reply "Yes."

    Then you have to explain it to them: "Cake OR iced cream or cake AND iced cream?" ... and they get confused and insulted.

    This is with adults who have post secondary degrees and are supposedly able to write essays. Unfortunately, they don't understand the basics of logic, let alone how to work with it. They're borderline dysfunctional and they don't realize it.

    Instead of teaching Boolean logic on the bicentennial, we should be teaching it in grade one ... along with how to add.

     

    1. Re:Logic is sorely missing. by captjc · · Score: 2

      Your logic is ambiguous.

      "In what you're saying, do you mean OR or AND," and they reply "Yes."

      Yes is a correct answer to that statement, just not the one you are expecting. If either OR or AND is what they mean then an affirmative can be correct. Perhaps the correct question to ask is: "In what you're saying, WHICH do you mean, OR or AND?

      Then you have to explain it to them: "Cake OR iced cream or cake AND iced cream?" ... and they get confused and insulted.

      Obviously the correct question to ask is "Would you like Cake OR Iced Cream?" as it logically gives the largest number of combinations: cake, iced cream, both, or neither. Whereas asking about Cake AND Iced Cream gives the option of both or neither since they two have become conditionally paired.

      Then again, you can also realize that few people use precise language but most people who are not socially dysfunctional or deliberate assholes understand meaning and intent of the question because people are not computers with strict syntax requirements.

      --
      Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
    2. Re:Logic is sorely missing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried to explain AND and OR logic to a co-worker who was searching for some combination of terms, such as "Swedish" and "cooking."

      She wanted all the results for "Swedish" OR "cooking," but she said she should use AND because she wanted to see the results for both.

      I tried to explain that she had to use OR, because it would match if the word "Swedish" was in the record, OR the word "cooking" was in the record. But then she explained that she didn't want ALL results for EITHER term, she wanted the INTERSECTION of the two, where the record contained both "Swedish" AND "cooking," so she should use AND. Then *I* was confused!

      "So, use OR when you want the results for 'Swedish' AND the results for 'cooking,' but use AND when you want the results for 'Swedish AND cooking' ??

  10. 100000000 by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't we wait for his 256th birthday ?

    --
    Nullius in verba
    1. Re:100000000 by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Is his birthday signed or unsigned?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:100000000 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you confusing Boolean algebra with the binary numeral system?

    3. Re:100000000 by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      This would be for Donald Knuth. Just like $2.56 is one hexadecimal dollar, 256 years is one hexadecimal century.

  11. Unsung hero? by blind+biker · · Score: 3, Informative

    In every academic institution I studied or worked, every professor of mathematics and electronics-related subject acknowledged Boole as the founder of digital logic.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    1. Re:Unsung hero? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Compared to the general population, not a lot of people work or study at mathematics or electronics-related academic institutions. The work these unsung heroes did greatly affects all of us and in many ways makes our current way of life possible, for better or for worse. Yet, most people don't know who they were, what they did, why their work was and is important, how it affects them, ... In order for civilised society to work, for democracy to function, you need an informed electorate that knows what makes the world tick. How else are they going to make informed decisions in the voting booth, or when deciding where to spend their money, or how to organise their lives? Ignorance is slavery.

    2. Re:Unsung hero? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He is missing. I managed to get my master of science in electrical engineering with a focus on digital electronics and his name didn't come up even once. Boolean algebra was used all the time and we knew it was named after somebody, but I actually thought it was some German named Bool.

      Thinking about it, I didn't really have engineering/science history classes at all at the university. It was hard on studying what is needed to make something work. Who invented what was mostly skipped and what I know in this field is mainly from what I studied as a hobby after graduating. That's actually horrible now that I think about it since failures in the past are as important as successes. Knowing how people tried to improve something in the past and how it failed helps you to not waste time trying the very same with the same result.

    3. Re:Unsung hero? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      That was quite a stretch there, neighbor! Did you pull any muscles making that leap?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    4. Re:Unsung hero? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      So if people don't know about George Boole's disproven theory of human thought which accidentally triggered the information revolution, they won't be able to vote responsibly?!?

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  12. taught grades 4-8 in 1960s new math by peter303 · · Score: 1

    The 1960s New Math movement was similar to the 2010s Common Core: alternative ways of teaching math make you learn it better. I dont agree. You have to tighten up and memorizes tables, formulas and algorithms, especially when you have a strong child's mind.
    The school year started with a week of set theory with some Boolean algorithms. I never used the stuff in real life until college digital circuits.

    1. Re:taught grades 4-8 in 1960s new math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same here - along with rings and fields, which I didn't see again until graduate school! My Chicago Public School's principal was a University of Chicago PhD, who enthusiastically implemented Chicago Math.

    2. Re:taught grades 4-8 in 1960s new math by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      The 1960s New Math movement was similar to the 2010s Common Core: alternative ways of teaching math make you learn it better.

      Wrong. Common core is NOT a teaching method, it's a specification for what kids ought to be able to do at various ages. The "how" is up to the teacher.

      http://www.corestandards.org/a...

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  13. (Video) Not Available in your Country by Bob_Who · · Score: 1

    I tried to view the video discussed in the article and the youtube link displays:

    "This video contains content from RTE. It is not available in your country"

    What country am I in if I can read Slashdot?

    1. Re:(Video) Not Available in your Country by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      VPN

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    2. Re:(Video) Not Available in your Country by CAOgdin · · Score: 1

      That's a YouTube restriction. Unfortunately, it appears that the only sites that host this film have pirated it in Ireland, and put it up only on SCAMMER sites. I would hope there would be a downloadable version available as .mp4, so we can educate others about the magnificent achievements Boole made in understanding basic logic. I believe him to be as important to the evolution of computing as I do Alan Turing (where would Turing have been without Boole???).

      Irish Television, RTE, could make the film available, but apparently the developers of the documentary wish to retain total control over it's distribution. I'm hoping someone puts the pirated version up on a Torrent, so the rest of us can learn from it, too.

    3. Re:(Video) Not Available in your Country by Bob_Who · · Score: 1

      Well, at least this illustrates how inadequate human procedure can be when it comes to the free flow of ideas...er....I mean intellectual property... If history (aforesaid "reality") resembles previous works involving language on media, then commercial and legal interests shall have license to subvert their transmission to the populous. This, of course, is for the common good, of the few. Those who may benefit must pursue it, and retain it, as if it were a commodity with strict rules of exchange.

      Charles Dickens may have been paid by the word, but he never paid his royalties to the the King's English. All legal and commercial arrangements are an impediment in fact, but they are nothing more. One way or another, if its expressed, then its reproducible and eternally subject to all forms of exploitation. We can pay to save a little time, if we opt to, but they can't take it away even if they think they own it. Eventually, our silly customs will subside or take new form and elaborations of human nature in its various forms.

      But Boole and Turing, like genius of any age, will live on in one form or another. The rest of this nonsense is simply that..nonsense. And nonsense is a silly long term business strategy...unless you're Mother Goose or a Jabberwocky, or a Legislator.

  14. Re:You need a whole class to explain Boolean Logic by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    I was trying to go for a joke about how boolean operators are a class of operators but I got so many results about a boolean class in various programming languages.

  15. Look at his ears. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    His ears are always covered. Logic tells us he is a Vulcan emmisary.

  16. Birthday by jan_jes · · Score: 1

    Google celebrates English mathematician George Boole's 200th birthday.You can see the video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  17. All men are mortal; Socrates is a man by edittard · · Score: 1

    Boole is an unsung hero of the digital age who deserves to be recognized as the forefather of the Information Age.

    Isn't that over-egging it a bit? It's been a long time, but isn't it really the same as ancient Greek syllogisms except with symbols instead of words?

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    1. Re:All men are mortal; Socrates is a man by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Syllogisms are all about "all Xs are Ys" and "some Xs are Ys", aren't they? That's just implication ("->" in Boolean algebra) -- no ands or ors.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    2. Re:All men are mortal; Socrates is a man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By that way of thinking, nobody deserves credit for anything really.

  18. Learn to read troll... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you can't understand words or phrases within the context of the framework in which they're used, then you have the problem. Get remedial reading lessons. You need them.

    * Lastly - this isn't english class. You're off topic trolling, no questions asked.

    (So take your purely arbitrary opinion, that of a trolling loser, & die... ok? Thanks. You'd be doing the world + yourself a HUGE favor!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Obviously, not learning formal logic did not help improve your reading skills... apk

    1. Re:Learn to read troll... apk by dave420 · · Score: 1

      If the framework is fucked there is no guarantee anyone will understand anything. Your framework is intrinsically fucked, as it is indistinguishable from one created by someone with untreated mental issues. That's not to say you have untreated mental issues, just that you argue like someone with said issues.

    2. Re:Learn to read troll... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're fucked, off topic, and trolling. You understand what he wrote now also. Others understood him http://science.slashdot.org/co...

    3. Re:Learn to read troll... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't understand the horrible scrawling dave420 just tried to do. Trying to read it is like trying to decipher hieroglyphics.

  19. Witness the "illogic logic" of dave420 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject & dave420 being easily shut down for his stupidity http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

    * :)

    (All /. knows he's nothing but a miserable troll "ne'er-do-well" so take him for what he is - a waste of life)

    APK

    P.S.=> LMAO - I have SO MANY TIMES bookmarked that I've completely shut him down (especially on hosts files) that it's not funny - & the funniest part is that the link above wasn't me but it shut him up fast... apk

  20. To bad it isn't an even number by whitedsepdivine · · Score: 1

    We got to wait another 56 years.