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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born in the middle of the 17th century, but his substantial contributions to our understanding of numbers form the underpinnings of the computers we use every day.
Born on this day in 1646, the German mathematician completed his bachelor's degree in philosophy in one year at age 15 and went on to become one of the most prominent figures in the history of philosophy. He was an early advocate of the theory of rationalism and anticipated modern logic and analytic philosophy.
But it was for his work in mathematics that his 372nd birthday is celebrated in a Google Doodle on Sunday. While Leibniz's greatest accomplishment is his contribution to the study of calculus, he also refined the binary numerical system, in which the value of a number of expressed as a combination of ones and zeros. The system forms the foundation for almost all modern computers and mobile devices.
Leibniz was also a prolific inventor of mechanical calculators, conceiving in 1685 the pinwheel calculator, an engine constructed of wheels with adjustable teeth that would enjoy popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries. His Leibniz wheel, invented in 1673, powered the first mass-produced calculating machine and was used for three centuries until the invention of the electronic calculator in 1970s.
He contributed to a wide array of other fields, including biology, medicine, psychology and linguistics.
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Today’s Google Doodle marks the 372nd birthday of German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who lived from 1646 to 1716.
An academic with many strings to his bow, he was both intellectually brilliant and also no stranger to controversy.
His work on the binary code paved the way for some of today’s modern technology – primarily, the computer.
He was born on 1 July 1646 in Leipzig, Germany, and started his intellectual journey young. His mother raised him with a devotion to his education.
Having inherited the library of his father, who had been a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Leipzig but died when his son was just six years old, Leibniz had access to lots of books on philosophy and theology from an age when other children were still reading fairy tales.
The writings in Latin helped him pick up the language by the age of 12. When he was 14, the smart youngster enrolled at the same university his father had taught at, he completed his bachelor’s degree in philosophy aged 15, gained a master’s degree a year later and then an undergraduate degree in law a year after that.
He wrote his first book called De Arte Combinatoria (On the Combinatorial Art) at the age of 19.
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between the West Indies and England with a doodle Google 78/101 William Morris Google celebrates William Morris' 182 birthday with a doodle showcasing his most famous designs Google 79/101 St Patrick's Day 2016 Googlle celebrates St Patrick's Day on 17 March 80/101 Caroline Herschel Google marks Caroline Herschel's 266th birthday Google 81/101 Clara Rockmore Google celebrates Clara Rockmore's 105th birthday 82/101 International Women's Day 2016 #OneDayIWill video marks International Woman's Day on 8 March 83/101 St David's Day 2016 Google marks St David's Day Google 84/101 Leap Year 2016 Google celebrates Leap Day on 28 February 2 Google 85/101 Lantern Festival 2016 Google celebrates the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations with a doodle of the Lantern Festival Google 86/101 Stethoscope Inventor, René Laennec Google celebrate's René Laennec's 235th birthday 87/101 Valentine's Day 2016 Google celebrates Valentine's Day with a romantic Doodle 88/101 Dmitri Mendeleev Google celebrate Dmitri Mendeleev's 182nd birthday 89/101 "The televisor" demonstartion Google Doodle celebrates 90 years since the first demonstration of television or "the televisor" to the public 90/101 Professor Scoville Google marks Professor Scoville’s 151st birthday 91/101 Sophie Taeuber-Arp Google marks Sophie Taeuber-Arp's 127th birthday 92/101 Charles Perrault Google celebrates author Charles Perrault's 388th birthday 93/101 Mountain of Butterflies discovery Google celebrates the 41st anniversary of the discovery of the Mountain of Butterflies 94/101 Winter Solstice 2015 Google celebrate the Winter Solstice 95/101 St Andrew's Day 2015 Google marks St Andrew's Day with doodle featuring Scotland's flag and Loch Ness monster 96/101 41st anniversary of the discovery of 'Lucy' Google marks the 41st anniversary of the discovery of 'Lucy', the name given to a collection of fossilised bones that once made up the skeleton of a hominid from the Australopithecus afarensis species, who lived in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago 97/101 George Boole Google marks George Boole's 200th birthday 98/101 Halloween 2015 Google celebrates Halloween using an interactive doodle game "Global Candy Cup" 99/101 Prague Astronomical Clock Google celebrates the 605th anniversary of the Prague Astronomical Clock, one of the oldest functioning timepieces in the world 100/101 Autumnal Equinox 2015 Google marks the autumnal equinox on 23 September 101/101 International Women's Day 2018 Google marks IWD with a doodle featuring a dozen female artists from 12 different countries
One of his greatest claims to fame is developing the binary system, which consists of 1s and 0s and is at the core of modern computing.
Ancient cultures had previously used their own binary systems and Leibniz was particularly inspired by the Chinese I Ching, recognising the country’s mathematical advancement.
He wrote Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire (Explanation of Binary Arithmetic (1703) on the subject.
His achievements in the world of mathematics, included developing differential calculus and integral calculus.
During his time, he met many great minds including Galileo, Francis Bacon, René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, but not all his relationships were positive.
He had a sort of rivalry with Isaac Newton – an argument between them over who first invented and wrote about calculus, the mathematical study of change, raged for years.
Newton accused him of stealing ideas based on his unpublished works, in a battle that gained notoriety in the academic world and was something that would hang over Leibniz for years.
Able to write in Latin and French, as well as German, Leibniz wrote a number of, essays, journal articles and manuscripts, much of which were published long after his death. He wrote on topics including mathematics, metaphysics, philosophy, politics, logic and ethics.
In the world of philosophy, one of his writings argues God created “the best of all possible worlds” – a theory which is explored in ‘Théodicée’. He also took interest in multiple other subjects such as medicine, technology, physics and geology.
He also worked as a political adviser, working with multiple rulers of the House of Brunswick.
When he died in Hanover in 1706 his grave was unmarked for 50 years as he had fallen out with both the Royal Society and the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
Years after his death, he would regain some of the reputation that he had lost, after his works were made more publicly available.
The Leibniz Prize was created in his name in Germany in 1985 to help outstanding scientists and academics further their research. It pays out a maximum of €2.5 million per award
The Google Doodle honouring him today says "Google" in binary code.
“The present is big with the future,” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz once said, and he would know. The 17th-century philosopher and mathematician developed the binary number system that is still being used today. Many of his most celebrated quotes look towards the future and oftentimes depict what is possible with advanced computing.
On Sunday, Leibniz’s 372nd birthday was honored with a Google Doodle. Not only was Leibniz a philosopher exploring both faith and rationalism, but he was an inventor who developed several prototypes of mechanical calculators. However, it was his invention of the modern binary number system in 1689 that would become the foundation of the modern computer.
He may not have discussed computers by name in the 17th century, but his ideas for the tools that would advance scientific knowledge are prescient, especially when remembering it was his binary system that would later solve the very challenges he’d lament.
1. Leibniz Envisioned the Possibilities of Automation
“It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could safely be relegated to anyone else if machines were used.”
Throughout his career, Leibniz invented several types of hand-cranked and mechanical calculators, and sought to add automated multiplication and division to Blaise Pascal’s calculator. Leibniz saw the necessity of automated calculation as a way to streamline scientific processes and alleviate scientists from some of the more tedious aspects of computing so that they may focus on bigger-picture innovation.
2. He Drew Inspiration From the Human Brain
“If we were magically shrunk and put into someone’s brain while she was thinking, we would see all the pumps, pistons, gears and levers working away and we would be able to describe the workings completely, in mechanical terms, thereby completely describing the thought processes of the brain. But that description would not contain any mention of thought! It would contain nothing but descriptions of pumps, pistons, levers!”
Although it is Leibniz’s work with binary code that would lead to modern computing, today’s innovators are looking beyond zeros and ones and towards human brains as an approach to building future computers. Leibniz wouldn’t have been against the idea, as his writing frequently discussed the mechanics of a human brain and the way scientists perceive its processes.
3. He Eagerly Awaited Data Storage
“I am convinced that the unwritten knowledge scattered among men of different callings surpasses in quantity and in importance anything we find in books, and that the greater part of our wealth has yet to be recorded.”
In an essay on the method of certainty and the art of inventing, Leibniz discussed the breadth of knowledge that had yet to be recorded and the ways in which these thoughts could be captured and made accessible. It paints a broad picture of how inventors can push the limits of present knowledge and how these advancements can be shared. Over 300 years later, and scientists continue to scramble to create platforms for greater data storage to record and hold all the information that has yet to be shared.
4. He Wanted to Solve Future Problems
“Nature has established patterns originating in the return of events, but only for the most part. New illnesses flood the human race, so that no matter how many experiments you have done on corpses, you have not thereby imposed a limit on the nature of events so that in the future they could not vary.”
According to Leibniz, humanity would never run out of problems that needed solving, and thus humans must create mechanisms that could solve for future challenges. Leibniz constantly spoke of the future, reminding colleagues that not only were the possibilities endless, but it was an inventor’s responsibility to prepare for as many of those possibilities as feasible. He attempted this through identifying patterns and forming calculations and was one of the first to see binary sequencing as a means for prediction and preparedness.
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While Leibniz could not have imagined today’s computer, he does describe its functionality in the work of a scientist. His many invented calculators reflect his interest in expanding the output of scientists by advancing their tools, and what possibilities would come from such technological luxuries. It’s not surprising that these quotes reveal a mathematician preoccupied with future possibilities, as his inventions went on to solve problems that he himself would never fathom.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646, in Leipzig, Germany toward the end of the devastating Thirty Years’ War. His father, a Professor of Moral Philosophy, died when he was six years old, and he was raised by his mother. After his father’s death, Leibniz inherited his extensive library, which is where his ideas began to take shape. Leibniz’s life was defined by academics: He has his undergraduate in philosophy by the age of 15, achieved a masters degree the next year, and was awarded his bachelor’s degree in law at the age of 17 after only one year of studies.
His philosophical writings consist mainly of journal articles, manuscripts published long after his death, and many letters to many correspondents. Through his life, Leibniz’s most notable accomplishment is considered to be his conception of the ideas of differential and integral calculus independently and simultaneously with Isaac Newton's similar conceptions. In 1676, Isaac Newton accused him of having seen his unpublished work on calculus. There was alleged to be evidence to prove that Leibniz stole calculus from Newton.
Getty / Google Google doodle: Today's doodle is written in binary in tribute to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Mathematicians have come to favour Leibniz’s notation as the conventional expression of calculus, while Newton’s became unused. Leibniz’s later years were plagued by these accusations of plagiarism, a period known as the 'calculus priory dispute'. By the time of his death in Hanover 1716, aged 70, he had fallen out of favour in society, including amongst British Royalty, with whom he has ties. Even though Leibniz was a life member of the Royal Society and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, neither organisation saw fit to honour his death.
Getty Google doodle: Leibniz's house in Hannover, Germany
His grave went unmarked for more than 50 years. Historians of mathematics writing since 1900 or so have tended to acquit Leibniz, pointing to important differences between Leibniz's and Newton's versions of calculus. In 1900, British philosopher Bertrand Russell published a critical study of Leibniz's metaphysics, making his ideas respectable to a modern audience. In 1985, it seemed Leibniz had finally redeemed himself, when the German government created the Leibniz Prize, offering an annual award euros for experimental and theoretical projects.
Getty Google doodle: The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitat Hannover
