One more figure worth knowing, even briefly: George Boole (1815–1864), who in 1854 published The Laws of Thought — reducing logical reasoning itself to a kind of algebra, with only two values: true and false.

Boolean algebra sat unused for decades as a philosophical curiosity. In the 20th century it became the literal switching logic inside every digital circuit ever built.

Babbage's engine, Lovelace's program, Boole's logic — three separate threads in the 1800s, waiting nearly a hundred years for electronics to braid them together. We'll pick that thread up again later in this course.