Logic Dictates

The fellow above is one George Boole, born this day 1815 in Lincolnshire, England. It is not a good picture, but it was the best one I could find. I guess Mr. Boole was not quite ready for his close-up. Boole was born into a middle-class family, and his talent for maths went relatively unnoticed until the age of 34 when he was appointed professor of mathematics at Queen's College in Cork, Ireland that he begin to shine. Logic was Mr. Boole's bailiwick, and he was the first English mathematician to tackle that subject in almost two hundred years. Granted most of his work was pretty obscure, and sails directly over my head like a lazy fly ball into left field, but his claim to fame, and his hero status rest upon his "invention" of Boolean logic. Whether or not you've ever heard of Mr. Boole, I can assure you that you have used his gift to humanity. Ever done a Google, MSN, or Yahoo search? If so then you used Boolean logic without knowing what you were using. The Boolean logic serves as one of the foundations of moder computer science, and we would be hard pressed without it. Trust me, I did many a search in law school for case law that absolutely DEPENDED on the proper use of Boolean logic. If some idiot law student such as myself can sort it out, then it must be fairly easy, and extremely user friendly. So for making it easier to find whatever obscure piece of case law, or internet porn I happen to be searching for, and for being extremely modest about his achievements, George Boole (November 2nd, 1815- December 8th-1864, at the age of 49), you are my hero of the day.