History of Computers - Gottfried Leibniz

Gottfried Leibniz was a German polymath who made many influential contributions to the development of computers. Among them are binary, an early calculator known as the Stepped Reckoner, and algorithmic information theory; some of his ideas anticipated the idea of the Turing Machine, all important concepts in the history of computer technology.

Overview

Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646 in Leipzig, Germany. His father died when he was very young, and left him a large personal library, which Leibniz was able to access from age 7 onwards. He attended university at age 14 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He received a master's degree in 1664

Significance

Early in his life, Leibniz documented the binary system, which forms the basis of information transfer and function in computers. He worked with the binary system for the rest of his career. In 1671,