Spark & Anvil Privacy
Where this idea comes from

Truth tables and switches

In 1854 the English mathematician George Boole published The Laws of Thought, which writes logic as algebra with only two values. In 1937 Claude Shannon, a student at MIT, showed that Boole’s algebra describes circuits of electrical switches.

One thing to hold: A light switch: on is true, off is false.

Why it matters: Every chip in a phone or computer is built from tiny switches that follow Boole’s rules.

Dates:

  1. 1854 Boole publishes The Laws of Thought.
  2. 1921 Ludwig Wittgenstein (in the Tractatus) and Emil Post (in the American Journal of Mathematics) each publish truth tables.
  3. 1937 Shannon’s master’s thesis links Boole’s algebra to switching circuits.

Sources: George Boole, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854) · Emil L. Post, “Introduction to a General Theory of Elementary Propositions”, American Journal of Mathematics 43 (1921) · Claude E. Shannon, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits” (MIT thesis, 1937) · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “The Algebra of Logic Tradition”