All language subtitles for The.Genius.of.George.Boole.2015.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

(computer animated music)

- - [Narrator] Today, everything
from how we live, work,

eat, sleep, shop, to how we
play, relies on mathematics.

Our desk top computers,
our mobile phones,

TV, transport, any household
appliance, even street lights.

Anything that uses an
electrical circuit,

relies on a concept
known as boolean logic.

- There isn't a piece of
technology on today's planet

operating without the
application of boolean logic.

- Anybody who knows anything
about how computers work

knows about boolean logic.

That's sort of right down
there at the basis of

modern computing.

- At the very core of a
computing chip is essentially

a switch.

An on/off switch.

In today's computers
it's on a silicone chip,

so you have a transistor.

- So if you're on
it's 1, and off is 0,

that's all you need, and that
is the amazing part of it.

Very simple.

Extraordinarily simple.

- - [Narrator] The grand
designer of this elegantly

simple, but radical idea, is
perhaps one of the world's

greatest unsung heroes.

- Is George Boole important?

Well, no George Boole, no
Google, no Amazon, no Intel,

we could go on.

That makes him pretty important.

- Booles is the father of
modern information technology.

- He was one of the
first people to propose

that the way we think
is by using logic.

- [Narrator] And he would
do this against a backdrop

of Ireland's darkest days.

- I think the problems he
was looking at were human

problems, how people
live and work, and think.

And then tried to reduce that
into simple rules and simple

constructs.

- [Narrator] He would even
apply this approach to man's

oldest question.

- If the world work's according
to fixed or given laws,

and if the human mind
is part of the world,

you can not only
understand the world,

but you can understand
the mind of God.

- [Narrator] Nearly 200
years ago George Boole made

a revolutionary discovery.

The consequences of that
discovery continue to change

our world today.

(electronic music)

- [Narrator] The Tyndall
National Institute

is at the cutting
edge of technology.

Technology made possible by the
discoveries of George Boole.

- What we are here doing,
and a number of groups

in the world are trying
with us, is to try to

get computing to be
faster and more efficient.

We want information to be
transformed in a more efficient

way, and a safe and
more secure way.

- [Narrator] Building on
Boole's legacy at Cork,

Doctor Emanuele Pelucchi
is part of a world-wide

team, trying to make the leap
into the next technological

era.

With an advanced
branch of science,

known as Quantum computing.

- There's not many places
where you can get cleaner

at work than you are
actually at home,

but this is one of those
places where you need to

be extremely clean.

Boole is very important
for our work, because

he is the person who started
the mathematical tools,

which allowed to
design circuits.

It's quite impressive, I'd
say the reason me and all the

people here working here,
is because a guy in the

middle of the 19th century
formally tried to work

on something which was a big
interest to a small number

of academics, and then
something like 80 years later,

it became a
mainstream technology.

And that is actually
an extraordinary thing.

- [Narrator] The work
that Emanuele is doing on

quantum computing will one
day revolutionize the speeds

of which our computers work.

The applications are limitless.

Some of the most complex
equations and calculations

ever devised could
be solved in seconds.

- To some extent Boole is
significantly less known

than other scientific heroes.

It's just not very clear
how important Boole's

legacy has been, and
maybe it's our job to make

it more clear, and advertise it.

- [Narrator] Every day Emanuele
walks past George Boole's

home on his way to work.

- It's sometimes quite
nice to think that when

you live in Cambridge, you're
staying nearby the same

College where Newton was.

There's history around
you, and here's the same.

- [Narrator] This 18th century
house but a stone's throw

from University College Cork,
has been sadly neglected

since the days when George
Boole made his home here.

- Everybody who's passing by
here doesn't actually know

that a lot of the technology
they're using today, has it's

roots in George Boole's work.

It's a pity, we should have
this house telling that,

of George Boole gave an
important contribution

to our world.

- [Narrator] This year,
in recognition of Boole's

importance, University
College Cork,

and Cork City Council,
are finally restoring the

house to it's former glory.

2015 marks the Bicentenary
of Boole's birth.

And the University is
pulling out all the stops,

to celebrate the event.

- And here he is, I
haven't seen this before.

I hadn't heard of him, even
as a student here in the 1970s

I spent six years on the
campus, and I don't believe

that I heard of George Boole
once during those six years.

We're using every vehicle
possible to spread the message.

We've a year long series
of commemorative events,

there's a whole series of
lectures, we have a series

of conferences, we have
a collaboration with

Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, exhibitions around

the world, the publication
of his biography,

and the genealogy
project on who he was

and who descended from him,
and what they contributed

to the world.

It's a very big program.

- Who are you?

- In the flesh, history.

- Josh, thank you.

- It is a pleasure Sir,
an absolute pleasure.

- Every day at about 3
o'clock there's a Boole tour.

And, he must be the tour guide.

In character.

- I first knew about Boole
when I first started coming

to this campus.

Because among the things
I was told, was that this

was the campus at which
George Boole had worked.

Next question was,
who's George Boole?

(laughs)

- We're not selling Boole.

We're sharing a story.

And we're sharing it
because genius deserves

to be recognized, particularly
where genius has had

such enormous impact on
the lives of every single

person on the planet.

- [Narrator] This is a story
about how one man sparked

a new era in human history.

- Well he's certainly
relatively unknown.

I did an exercise
about 18 months ago,

where I Googled Darwin,
found some 16 million pages,

and I Googled Albert
Einstein, and found something

in the region of 48 million.

And then I Googled George
Boole, and if I recall,

I found about 430,000 pages.

- George Boole's legacy is
pretty important to anyone who

regards the digital world
as being fundamental

to the way in
which they operate.

Without George Boole, life
would be very different

for pretty well all of us.

- [Narrator] Throughout
history man has been obsessed

with his place in the Universe.

- The landing gear has been
moved inside, so we are

sitting on the surface.

Phil is talking to us--

- [Narrator] In 2014
the European Space
Agency successfully

landed a probe on a
comet in the X quadrant.

To work out the trajectories,
on both the comet

and the probe ESA used a branch
of maths called calculus.

Some of these calculations
were based on those originally

developed by Boole.

- Well the Rosetta Space
Mission is, you know,

when you think about the
accuracy of what they did,

and the amount of time
it took, is staggering.

We become so blase watching
television, accepting

this, that, I mean, do you
have any idea, how difficult

it is, to find a small object
in space, and then land

on it?

Approaching with the
velocity which it is moving,

I think it's fantastic.

- [Narrator] The comet will
reveal new and vital research

about the birth of
our solar system.

Not only has Boole's work
in mathematics played a

critical part in getting
the probe to the comet,

but also in how we receive
the data, across 500 million

kilometers of space.

Funnily enough, the pictures
they sent back to earth,

they're not pictures at all,
they're just endless streams

of Boolean ones and zeroes.

When they get back to earth,
they are then translated

into pictures, but they're
essentially strings of

Boolean ones and zeroes
that we're getting

from outer space.

- [Narrator] Boole argued
that almost every value

or question could be reduced
to either true or false.

A simplification of our
world as a basic statement.

A yes or a no.

- Boole looked at what he called
bipolarity in binary terms.

You have North and South,
you have East and West,

you have male and female,
you have up and down.

You have in and out.

Just, we have two states of
things, and that seems to be

the basis of everything he did.

If you have just one state,
you'll never get off the ground.

And if you've ten states,
like we have ten fingers,

then that's too complicated,
you get too many

symbols to work with.

And a computer or any other
electronic device has tow states

basically on or off.

A circuit is switched
on or switched off.

And the one for on,
and a zero for off.

And everything is just simply
a combination of those.

- [Narrator] Unlike most of
the greatest scientific minds

of his time,

George Boole didn't come
from a privileged background.

Perhaps that's why he chose
the fledgling university

on the Southern
Coast of Ireland.

A country, at the
time, torn apart

by political and
social upheaval.

So how did this modest young
man lay the foundations

for the digital world?

It's the early 1800s, in
a small village called

Broxholme in Lincolnshire
resides George's father,

John Boole.

A shoe-maker by trade, but
unfulfilled by his profession.

He supplements his
thirst for knowledge

by studying the sciences,
Mathematics and literature.

He also develops a
passion for astronomy.

- I think the first thing is
that it would be extraordinary

that a cobbler would be
able to read and write,

because remember universe
literacy is a 20th century

phenomena.

Most kids didn't go to
school, or if they did,

they certainly wouldn't
have picked up an awful

lot of knowledge
and information.

George inherits his father's
appetite for knowledge,

to understand our
place in the universe.

- George Boole and his father
built their own telescope

and they would invite the
neighbours in to look at the

wonders of the heavens,
but only if they looked to

the heavens in a righteous
manner, and they worshiped God.

He was putting his
beliefs into action.

I think his father was
a frustrated scientist.

He would have liked to
have been a scientist,

but like George he didn't
have any formal education,

but he wasn't in a position.

He had a family, he
had four children,

he had a wife to look after.

So he wasn't in a position
to actually pursue

his love of science.

- [Narrator] Whilst struggling
just to keep his business

afloat, George's father
dedicates every spare

moment he has to
supplementing and encouraging

his son's prodigious talent.

George also is an
irrepressible student,

having mastered more
than five languages.

A 14 year old George
translates the Greek poem

Ode to Spring into English.

His proud father submits
it to the local paper.

- And this caused a great
deal of controversy,

because people wrote
in saying, you know,

I don't think a boy of 12
could have actually done this,

and he had to write letters
back and his father wrote,

yes, this is the unaided
work of a 12 year old.

So I think at that stage,
people realized that they

had a young genius
living among them.

- [Narrator] Two centuries
later, Boole's legacy can be

seen in other
prodigious young minds.

Coding clubs, like Coder
Dojo, founded in Cork in 2011,

are being set up
all over the world,

to help children develop
their computing skills.

- [Girl] Yeah, well done.

- [Teacher] Alright guys
we're setting up a quick

instruction talk.

Who hasn't been here
before, who hasn't been to

Coder Dojo yet?

- [Narrator] Members devise
their own computer games,

create their own animations,
and learn how to use

digital technology creatively.

- One of the things that
made Boole so powerful,

was that he studied
so many languages,

that he was able to read
the primary source texts,

of all the mathematical
theories of the time,

in all the different languages
they were written in.

And facility with languages,
that neuroplasticity

is incredibly important.

As these kids learn
more and more languages,

they get more and more
fluent, and they think

more powerfully.

And I have to say, the
best coders are poets.

They combine creativity
and economy expression

in language.

That talent and that skill
needs to be built young

for it to flourish.

And I think the more you
build it, the more powerful

and more creative
you can become.

What we know is that
when you get creative,

you build that muscle of
computational thinking.

It can take you to
unimaginably amazing places.

And I'm sure that Boole
would have been a programmer.

Were he here today.

- [Narrator] John Boole,
distracted perhaps

by his intellectual
pursuits, loses his business.

And young George, is
forced to become the sole

bread-winner for the
family, as a school teacher.

Despite this, he dedicated
every breathing moment

to mathematics, and in
particular, to a branch of maths

known as calculus.

- Yeah you know every high
school student in the States

just looks forward to doing
calculus, and here's a guy

who never even actually
formally went to school,

inventing things in it.

I'm thinking when my
kids get to high school,

will I have to re-learn it.

It's hard, it's not intuitive.

It's not something that
you go out every day

and see and touch, it's
really very academic.

- [Narrator] Retired maths
professor Des MacHale

is Boole's biographer.

And has spent the last 50
years studying the logicians

life and work.

- Boole's equation was
X squared equals x,

I'm looking at the equation
x to the 7th equals x.

And I'm looking for easy
proofs of results that would

follow from that.

Just for fun.

- [Unidentified Interviewer]
You actually love doing

this stuff?

- Oh I do, absolutely
yeah, this is my hobby.

And you know if you make your
whole career in mathematics

you've got to like doing
this stuff, I mean, you know,

you say to me would you
prefer to go to a good movie,

or do mathematics, well,

Mathematics is experimental
science, and you put

95% of what you do into the
waste paper bin for recycling.

But it's the 5% that
remains that's good.

It's like, mining for gold.

It's like a game, I suppose,
like a computer game

you play where yo press
the buttons and you know

what to do, and it's very
much in the spirit of

what Boole did.

- [Narrator] By his
twenties, while still working

as a school teacher, Boole
manages to find time,

to research and publish
over 50 papers on calculus.

One of which, wins a
gold medal from the

Royal Society in London.

And then Boole develops a
new branch of mathematics.

Invariant theory.

- Invariant theory asked the
question, if you have an object

in mathematics, and you
perform a mathematical

transformation on that
object, what stays the same,

and what changes?

So a good elementary example
would be, if you take a circle,

and you take its center,
you rotate the circle,

well then all the points
of the circumference

of the circle move, but
the center stayed the same.

That is an invariant of that
particular transformation.

To actually come along
and invent a whole new

area of mathematics, is quite
an extraordinary thing to do,

and especially for a, let's
say 25 year old student

who was self-educated in
mathematics, to do this

is unbelievably,
it's preposterous,

that one could actually do it.

- He was a mathematical savant,
just one of these people

who have a deep curiosity
and just a phenomenal

capacity to learn, and
also a curiosity and

an ability to invent.

Because see a lot of what he's
doing, he's inventing things.

He's discovering and
inventing new languages

that can describe things
in a mathematical way.

- [Narrator] Invariant Theory
was not fully appreciated

in Boole's lifetime.

But 70 years later,
Albert Einstein uses it

to develop his own theory.

- It also became
important in physics.

Because in physics you ask
the question what stays

the same, what's the big
invariant in physics?

And it's C, which is
the velocity of light.

- [Narrator] Without
Boole's work on invariance,

Einstein's theory of relativity

might never have
been discovered.

- I think that he
investigated and did discovery

in the area of Invariant theory,

and it's a very important
line of mathematics,

which then has a link
into some of the work

that was done with, in
relativity, and atomic physics.

So again you have this
person, just playing in an

area, coming up with a
language that helps describe

something, and that language
gets used elsewhere.

- [Narrator] Condemned to
being the sole provider

for his parents, sister,
and two young brothers,

on a modest teacher's salary.

The prospect of improving
his situation with a

University education,
seemed beyond his reach.

- It cost a lot of money, to
get a third level education

or degree in the 19th Century.

He didn't have money like
that, and even if he did,

he probably couldn't have
done it, because he had

to support his family
at the same time.

But thanks to his prestigious
award by the Royal Society

Boole's work is beginning
to be recognized.

In 1839, he's offered a place
at Cambridge University.

But there's a problem.

- George Boole was an outsider.

He was an academic
outsider, he was also

a social outsider, in that,
you know, you don't mix

in the high social circles,

if you don't have
very much money.

The outsiders are the poor
or the working classes,

just were not part
of what was going on

in the academic world that
belonged to universities

where there was privilege
and where the people who

went there, actually from
privileged and rich backgrounds.

So Boole had to fight
against this all his life.

- [Narrator] Financial
considerations forced Boole

to turn the offer down.

- Boole, I think, did actually
want to go to Cambridge.

But there was no mechanism
whereby a person without

any money or a fellowship
or a scholarship,

could have actually gone.

But on the other
hand, in later life,

he said look, maybe I'm just
as well not to have gone

to Cambridge.

If I went to Cambridge, I
would just go to lectures,

I would just pick
up the information,

and the material, that
other people had taught,

and I would then reproduce
that and maybe extend that.

He certainly would not
have gone off in a radical

direction in
mathematics, or logic.

I mean his strong
suit was creativity.

- [Narrator] Now aged 25,
it looks like Boole will be

destined to live out
his life in obscurity.

But ten years later, he
gets a second chance.

In 1849 a new University
College is opened in Cork.

This college is
seeking professors.

Boole decides to apply.

Since he has no academic
qualifications, he asks for

letters of recommendation
from some of the most

prominent members of the
scientific community.

- Boole had some very acceptable
letters of recommendation

from eminent mathematicians,
of the day in the

United Kingdom.

The foremost probably was
Lord Kelvin, William Thompson,

and he was one of the foremost
mathematicians of the day.

Also Augustus De Morgan,
who was a professor

at London University, Phillip
Kelland, Robert Ellis,

names that everybody in
mathematics would have known.

- I have carefully examined
all that Mr Boole has written,

and have no hesitation
in assigning him a place

amongst the very foremost
rank of the mathematicians.

- I have much pleasure in
stating that Mr Boole's earlier

contribution to the Cambridge
mathematical journey

of which I was for
some time the editor,

convinced me that
his mathematical
abilities, are quite

of the first order.

- Mr Boole of Lincoln has
established a high reputation

amongst mathematicians.

His appointment to such
a situation, would be

highly desirable for
the sake of science.

- [Narrator] In the Autumn
of 1849, a still relatively

fresh faced young man,
sets foot in the quadrangle

of Queens College Cork
for the very first time.

At 35 years of age, George
Boole has become the college's

first ever Professor
of mathematics.

- He would have come up the
avenue, and entered through

the archway.

The teaching rooms are on
the far side, and his office

would have been over there.

But let's face it, in 1849
Ireland wasn't an attractive

place to move to for a job.

And Boole came here admittedly
without a college degree,

but he has his Gold Medal
from the Royal Society,

and he had the most
wonderful set of references

from some of the best
mathematicians in Europe.

So I think that most
people saw that this guy

was arriving with the
capacity to contribute,

uniquely to the intellect
of the university,

and in a discipline critical
to economic and social

development here.

There were only 100, or 120
students, and at this time,

only 20 teaching staff
had been recruited.

So, he was coming to a small
town, in very poor economic

and social shape, to a totally
new institution, without

any reputation, and into a
small, very small community,

of scholars.

I suppose it was the
perfect fit for Boole

for a number of reasons.

The key one for him was
that it gave him a job,

with a salary at a
level that he needed.

Particularly to support
his very poor family,

back in Lincoln.

Perhaps it also gave him the
opportunity to be a big fish

in a small pond.

And it also, because
of the small scale,

probably gave him more time to
think than he would have had

in a large, busy,
well-established University.

- I was lucky enough
to inherit his title as

Associate Professor
of Mathematics.

And I'm not worthy of that,
but it is a very great honor

to say well, I have the
same title as George Boole

had here.

- [Narrator] Boole
now had access to a
well-stocked library.

Stimulating research
from the continent,

at his fingertips.

- Natural science, in French.

Oh, oh, oh, there they
are, there they are.

This is the Quarterly
Journal of Mathematics,

produced in Oxford, sold as
the fist volume, Volume one.

So he'd have ordered that
when it came out first.

1861, still valid.

This is valid mathematics.

And I mean they have, the
most beautiful pictures

here, the most beautiful
illustrations of curves.

These are all done as wood cuts.

He would have felt they
were worth ordering for the

library, and would have
actually had them bound,

and they come here and they
be available for students

to read.

It's very nice.

He certainly would
have handled this,

so these would have
been his books.

It shows here the College
was fairly well stocked

with research journals.

- [Narrator] Boole leaves
his family behind in Lincoln,

and for the first
time, concentrates
fully on his research.

This move to Cork, will
prove to be a turning point.

- I sometimes wonder why
George Boole would go

to a University in
Cork, which at the time,

was relatively new, so it
wasn't on the Academic map.

So, but I think that
a University like
that can give you

a lot of intellectual freedom.

If you go to some of the more
established Universities,

sometimes you have to follow
a certain line of thinking.

Maybe 20 years later you
get to go and do your own

thing, whereas I think
University County Cork,

Queens University Cork,
gave him that opportunity

to be able to explore
multiple things,

and I think if you look
at what he was doing,

it was so unique.

- [Narrator] Here in Cork,
Boole comes up with an idea

that will change the world.

- Sometimes I get asked by
people, could you describe

the essence of what Boole did.

What was his major achievement,
and also what's it about,

what's it got to do with me?

And I would say, he
reduced basic ideas into

algebraic symbols, and
they were very simple

algebraic symbols.

But to write them
down in symbolic form,

was a masterpiece.

Boolean Logic now looks
like an obvious idea,

but it takes a genius
to spot an obvious idea.

I mean Newton is
regarded as a genius,

because of the story of the
apple, he saw an apple fall

from a tree and asked
what made it fall down.

Now apples have been
galling from trees

from tens of thousands
of years before that,

but no-body ever said, hang
on, what's making that apple

fall down, or why does
the force of gravity work?

So I think it takes great
genius to spot a very obvious

thing, and ask the
obvious question.

- [Narrator] So how does
the mind of a genius work?

For Boole, the process
of discovery is triggered

by his new life, and the
circumstance in which he

now finds himself.

- Paradoxically when he
came to Cork, he did mix

with the higher clergy
with the Bishop of Cork,

and his judges and
various other people.

I think, so he felt at
this stage, maybe I should

move up a little in the social
scale, not for nasty reasons,

but I will be more effective,
I'll be able to do more,

if I'm actually mixing
with these people.

Because these are the
people with power,

these are the
people of authority.

- [Narrator] But although
Boole now mixes with a higher

class of society,

he never feels
quite comfortable.

Especially given what
is happening outside the

University walls.

Ireland in 1849 is a country
in a state of despair.

The Potato Blight reduces
the population by two fifths.

Over one million people
are thought to have died,

many more are emigrating.

County Cork in particular,
is exceptionally deprived.

- Social conditions in
this city, were very bad

at that time.

There were significant
social, economic,

and health challenges.

In fact in that year, Queen
Victoria came to visit Cork

and originally intended
to open the University,

but couldn't come on campus,
because we had cholera here.

- [Narrator] As a man
who had known poverty,

Boole empathized with the
victims of the famine.

In a letter to his sister
Mary Anne, he makes his

feelings clear.

- Over the country you
see utter destitution,

nothing but fields
overgrown with weeds.

Vast desolate bogs,
cabins few in numbers,

I've seen nothing like it.

It is impossible to
relieve this wretchedness

by any private efforts.

The sight of it is
heart-sickening.

- [Narrator] But
Boole isn't content

just to wring his hands.

He wants to understand the
reasons for this crisis.

- George Boole lived in Ireland
at a time of great stress

and distress, and the Irish
famine happened when he

was there, west Cork was an
area that was particularly

badly hit, and I think
there was a lot of,

just broken logic.

You know, we had lots of food,

the food was leaving the
country, as people were dying.

People were leaving the
country, and emigrating to

places like the US, and yet
there was fish in the ocean,

fish in the rivers,

corn in the fields.

And that's illogical.

- [Narrator] Trying to
establish the causes

of the Irish famine is the
first trigger to stimulate

Boole's thought process.

The second, arises
out of his mastery

of several different languages.

- As you try to learn
different languages, you try

to look for a pattern,
and things that are common

between the languages,
because it helps you learn,

helps you learn more quickly.

So my sense is, it really
enabled him to go to the

root of what's common
between a language.

Which then is also, well
what's common between

logical thinking.

- [Narrator] In his attempt
to understand the causes

of Ireland's social ills,

and in his quest to
discover a common

denominator for language,
Boole is setting

himself immense problems.

But these are nothing
compared to the third

and greatest task upon
which he now embarked.

To prove the existence of God.

- Boole was a deeply
religious man.

I think Boole was very
keen on the idea of the

oneness of God, which clashes
somewhat with a Christian

idea of the Trinity.

- [Narrator] Boole's
originality of thought,

is at it's most evident in
his approach to religion.

Which is deliberately
non-denominational.

- In Ireland he attended
his local Church of

Ireland parish church,
where he was a regular

at evensong.

But he also attended the
Unitarian Church, but he never

became a full member of either.

- [Narrator] Boole is convinced
that God is one being.

And he seeks to prove this
by applying to the Bible,

the process of logical analysis.

- Boole was very suspicious
of any doctrinal statements,

any form of organized religion.

Boole's religious motivations
were to strip away

the layers of interpretation,

and get back to the pure
religion, to the oneness

to the unity of God to a
religion free of interpretation.

- [Narrator] Doctor
Mark Hocknell is at the

Royal Society in London to look
through the Boole archives.

Here, we have a note
in Boole's handwriting,

and it's headed
the origin of evil.

For a philosopher of religion
it's really interesting.

He starts with four logical
ideas, four premises.

He says if God is omnipotent,
all things must take

place according to his
will and vice versa.

Second, he says If God is
perfectly good, and if all

things take place according
to his will, absolute evil

does not exist.

And then the third premise,
if God were omnipotent and

benevolence were the sole
principle of his conduct,

then pain could not exist,

and it must exist only
as an instrument of God.

Fourth premise, pain does exist.

And then in the rest of this
paper, he subjects those

four statements to a
rigorous logical analysis.

And you get the sense
that he's thinking

as he's writing.

This is raw thought coming out,

you can see the way
he's crossed things out

where he thinks
he's made a mistake.

And he's written
things in again.

So this is a glimpse
into the mind of Boole.

We're actually seeing the
thoughts going through

his mind and being committed
to paper, as it's actually

happening, and
that's very exciting.

He gets to his conclusion,
just by manipulating

the symbols that he's coded up.

So he treats the problem as
if it were a logical problem

or as if it were a
mathematical problem.

He combines them in
lots of different ways.

So he adds them, subtracts
them, he multiplies them,

and so when combinations
of symbols are shown to be

equivalent, he just eliminates
them from the equation.

And he's left with the
symbols that tell him,

absolute evil does not exist
and pain is an instrument

of good.

If you can understand the
world, if the world is

rational and the world
works according to fixed or

given laws, and if the human
mind is part of the world,

it, therefore, works according
to fixed given rational

laws, you can not only
understand the world,

but you can understand
the mind of God.

- [Narrator] Boole never did
prove the existence of God.

But the attempt to do so,

will eventually lead him to
make his greatest discovery.

- People have this misconception
that science is about

proving things.

And actually, it's
the exact opposite.

You have a hypotheses,
and you try to falsify it.

You try to disprove stuff,

that's what science can do.

- I think what it
shows is curiosity.

He was looking at
taking big problems,

complex things that people
debate and argue about,

and then try to create a
simple order around it.

- [Narrator] George Boole
marries educationalist

Mary Everest, whose uncle
is the surveyor general

of India, and gives his
name to the world's highest

mountain.

They have five daughters.

All proved to be gifted
in mathematics, chemistry,

and literature.

In 1854 Boole publishes
his masterpiece.

The Laws of Thought.

This work will be his
crowning achievement.

But it will be another 80
years before its implications

are realized.

- Did he know how his research
was going to be applied?

Not for one moment
do I think so.

I think what might
have disappointed him,

is how long it took,
before it was applied.

- [Narrator] In 1937, a 21 year
old American Master's degree

student at MIT, makes
a staggering discovery.

Claude Shannon, is studying
electrical engineering,

and stumbles across an 83
year old book written by

a unknown Professor of
Mathematics from Cork.

He realizes that Boole's
19th century research

can be applied to 20th
Century technology.

- So what Shannon did, was
to find a way of implementing

the logic, that Boole
and others had developed,

into a simple circuit.

Showing that you can automatize
operations that were before

by in person.

Before it was a person
switching telephone calls.

It was a lady, which would
say, oh you want to connect

to this person, pop.

And it was a lady doing this.

But you can do, this is a
logic operation, you receive a

request, I want this,
and you apply it.

So what Shannon showed
that you can do this

with relays at the time, and
the modern version of relays,

is the transistor, so it's
actually the same thing.

It made it automatic,
and making it automatic,

makes it fast, cheap, more
reliable, stunningly better,

- [Narrator] Switching circuits
are at the heart of the

telephone industry.

Shannon proves that Boolean
algebra and binary arithmetic

can be used to simplify
the arrangement for

electro-mechanical relays.

- I think what he
stumbled on and uncovered,

was, by using Boolean
algebra, you can now actually

start to build,
back in those days,

the telecom industry.

Start to build
networking, and switching,

and create bigger
and bigger systems,

and I think that link, that's
a very important bridge,

from a mathematical world,

into essentially a
computer design world.

I think he was the guy
that made that bridge,

and made the connection that
I can actually design big

things using these
logical expressions.

- [Narrator] Over the last
century, companies like Intel

have made staggering
improvements to the design

of circuit boards.

- This is one of
our validation labs.

We spend years developing
a micro processor.

It's one of the most complex
machines man's ever made.

Today, the most advanced
silicon chips on earth,

still rely on Boole's
basic laws on logic.

- This is called an AND
gate, right and then

we have like an
input, or two inputs,

and an output, and you can
draw a very simple table

that describes how
an AND gate works.

And then you would know that
if you put a logical zero,

on each one of these inputs,
the output of this device

would just be a zero.

If you have the
input of a zero one,

the AND gate will
always put out a zero,

and the opposite is true
if you put an input of one

on A and zero on B,
you still get a Zero.

And then with this
particular one if you put

two ones on the input, you
get a one on the output.

And that's Boolean logic.

And all a micro processor
is, is combining together

gates like this, in such
a way, that it can solve

math problems.

We're working on chips that
have billions and billions

of transistors on it.

And getting all of these
elements to work together

in harmony, is very challenging.

- [Narrator] And the
miniaturization of
silicon technology,

has led to giant leaps forward,

throughout the
computer industry.

- What I've got in my
hand, is a micro processor.

It'll be going out to
market in the second half of

2015.

It's got more transistors
in it, than the number

of people in our planet.

And the computing power
in this chip is equal

to 3 teraflops.

To give you an idea
of what that is,

ten years ago it would
take a room as big

as the room you're
in, to generate 1
teraflop of computing.

Today I can hold it in my hand.

The design methodology needed
to do something like this,

it comes completely
reliant on the mathematics

that George Boole invented
in the 19th Century.

- [Narrator] But the
application of Boolean logic

is about much more than
just computer technology.

From their earliest
days, the internet giants

have been explicit, that
they are not just search

engine corporations.

They are pioneers in
artificial intelligence.

- If you do a Google search,
most people are just interested

in finding documents that
have all of the words

that they type in.

So implicitly they're saying,
I want documents that contain

the and of these words.

But you can also put in
things that contain the or,

so I could for example
type in something,

say someone documents the
name Hinton, and they contain,

either Geoff or Geoffrey, and
that would be a better search

for me if I wanted to
find everything about me.

The or would be a Boolean
or there, and Google makes

that available.

- [Narrator] Professor
Hinton is perhaps the world's

leading expert on
neural network systems.

An artificial intelligence
technique that he developed

in the mid 1980s.

Not only is he working
on the science of

decision making, but he's also
a descendant of George Boole.

- I am actually related
to George Boole.

I'm his great, great grand son.

I think Boole, particularly
in his later life,

wanted to understand
how thought worked,

and that's still one
of the most fascinating

scientific problems.

And it's obviously
got huge pay offs.

In particular it's got
big payoffs for Google,

because if they could
understand how thoughts

are working in documents,
they would be able to

give you the document
you really want.

If we could get things
that understood,

and that can do perception,
and can understand

reason, there would
be basically no limit

to what we could do.

- [Narrator] Understanding
how the human mind works,

and how we make
decisions, is now a

trillion dollar industry.

And artificial intelligence,
is the pinnacle of

Boole's legacy to
the digital age.

- Boole was really interested
in decision making.

And trying to understand
how decisions can be made.

And, we're still chasing
that exact same question.

- [Narrator] At the core
of artificial intelligence,

is Boole's most
important principle.

That even complex decision
making can be broken down

into a simple set of rules.

- This is a ball.

What is this?

- [Eyecub] Ball.

- [Narrator] This robot is
designed to learn in the same

way a child does.

- This is a tractor.

Where is the tractor?

We use eyecub to replicate
a wide variety of child

psychology experiments.

- No, that's the cup.

And hopefully when we're
doing it right, we get data

that matches what children
do and how children learn.

In a neuron network you
have lots of neurons,

just in our brain.

And in the computer
we simulate this,

so we have lots of
artificial neurons

in our neuron network.

Those connections form
pathways through the system,

so the more often a
particular path is walked,

the wider that path becomes.

You know what fires
together wires together.

Where is the tractor?

Where is the tractor?

Very good.

- [Narrator] Eyecub has
never seen these objects,

or heard these words before.

This is a huge milestone
in the world of AI.

- This is a box.

What is this?

- [Eyecub] Box

- [Narrator] But can a robot
actually think by itself?

- This is a block.

What is this?

- [Eyecub] Box.

- This is a block.

What is this?

- [Eyecub] Block.

- What is this?

- [Eyecub] Block.

- This is a box.

What is this?

- [Eyecub] Box.

- What is this?

- [Eyecub] Block.

- What is this?

- [Eyecub] Box.

- Hide the block.

What we want is for you
to be able to tell Eyecub

to do something new,
teach it exactly how you

would teach another person.

We can teach Eyecub new
skills and new tasks, not by

reprogramming Eyecub.

Not by coming up with
a new set of rules,

by which it's decisions
are going to be made.

But by giving it the
right kinds of experience.

By interacting with
it, talking to it.

Well done Eyecub.

So that's decision making.

It might seem like a
really trivial experiment,

placing a cup over a
block, but the implications

of it are amazing.

- [Narrator] It might not be
long before the unimaginable

becomes imaginable.

And this, is all based on
the work of George Boole.

- You know, the son of
cobblers can do great thing

if you put them in
the right environment,

and he's one of those
folks, that, rare birds,

but they can do
wonderful things.

- [Narrator] Without his
work on calculus projects of

this magnitude, would never
have even been considered.

(loud applause)

- If you want to send a
rocket off into space,

you want to send a
rocket off to the moon,

everybody talks
about the physics,

everyone talks about
the engineering,

and they're wonderful things.

But almost nobody talks about
the original mathematics

that plots out the
paths of trajectories.

- [Narrator] His work on
Invariance was so advanced,

that it would inspire the
greatest minds for centuries

to come.

- Even Higs Bolton comes
from those type of ideas.

- [Narrator] But his need to
interrogate the status quo,

his search for rules in the
most unlikely of places,

will remain his
ever-lasting legacy.

- I believe that Boole
worshiped truth above everything

else.

So no matter who says
something, and no matter who's

famous, it's the
truth of the material

that they actually put
forward, that really counts.

- In many ways the simplest
ideas are the best,

and that's an idea that
runs through not just

mathematics, but the
history of science.

- Did Boole move us
from the Industrial Age

into the Digital Age?

Very probably.

I don't think he intended
to do this, but of course

through the work of
people who followed him,

and people who
picked up his ideas,

we did move from an industrial
age, a mechanical age,

as it were,

into a digital age.

- I think George Boole's
story's got a lot going for it.

His career, the shifts and
changes that he went through.

Most of all, I think he
may have the worst ending,

of anybody I have
ever come across.

- He walked to teach in one
of these rooms one morning,

in 1864, in November.

Got drenched, because he lived
about two and a half miles

from the campus.

He taught all day,
in his wet clothes,

and walked home, and
developed pneumonia.

- [Narrator] Boole's
condition deteriorated.

And on the 8th
December 1864, he died.

He was 49.

- There are stories to
the effect that his death

was hastened by his wife,
because she was interested

in homeopathy.

- She was a health nut, and
she believed that he had,

obviously had
pneumonia of some sort.

She believed that by wrapping
him in freezing cold sheets,

she could get rid of his,
and plunging him into

cold baths, she could
get rid of his pneumonia.

- It is said that she
insisted on either throwing

water on his bed, or at
least ensuring that he was

lying between wet blankets.

I suspect that such
treatment probably would have

hastened his demise.

But pneumonia.

After a wetting.

Very sad.

- [Narrator] Mary Everest
Boole and her five daughters

continued to honour his memory
for the rest of their lives.

His memorial can be
found where it should be,

at University College Cork.

- This is the Boole
window in the east wing

of the University College Cork.

It is Boole in the center
there at the bottom,

and he's writing in a book.

And he's surrounded
by famous people.

You get Pascale,
you get Leibniz, the
inventor of Calculus,

and you've got Copernicus
to represent astronomy,

on this side there, and Galileo.

You can see Archimedes
with the geometric compass

in his hand, and of
course Newton here.

You have the english
Mathematicians there,

are Newton, Napier, and Bacon.

They were the two inventors
of calculus of course, Newton

and Leibniz, and Boole was a
great follower of calculus.

They are some of the most
famous people of all time,

that you've got there.

So it's a rather
splendid window.

It was certainly chosen
by someone who knew Boole

and knew his background,
and knew the people that

he would have been impressed by.

- Boole's work was
irrelevant in his time.

It was irrelevant for
a century thereafter.

You can't predict, the outcome,
or the impact of research.

And we must always support
blue skies thinking,

curiosity driven research.

Or we will eliminate Boole's
from our universities today.

- The digital world is quite
clearly in its infancy.

And I think that industries at
that point in the development

in their infancy, struggle to
look back, to look and begin

to investigate where
they came from.

It kind of isn't the issue.

Only when they
mature and grow up,

and reflect, do they
begin to look back,

and look at their own heroes
and find their own heroes.

And I think this is true
of almost every industry.

Eventually the digital
world will unquestionably

start to look at it's
heroes, and will discover

that George Boole was not
just a hero, maybe the hero.

(Closing Credits)