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Computing

Computing began as a branch of logic and became the infrastructure of everything. The people indexed here defined computability, wrote the first programs and compilers, designed packet networks and set the research agenda for artificial intelligence.

9 indexed lives · 0 Nobel laureates · 5 countries

Where to start

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

780 – 850

Gave the world algebra and, through his own name, the algorithm.

Uzbekistan·Mathematics · Astronomy · ComputingFull profile

Alan Turing

1912 – 1954

Defined what a computer is, then was destroyed by the country he saved.

United Kingdom·Mathematics · Computing · BiologyFull profile

Tim Berners-Lee

b. 1955

Wrote the web and gave it away for nothing.

United Kingdom·Computing · EngineeringFull profile

Computing across the centuries

6th–14th century · 1

  • Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi780 – 850

15th–17th century · 1

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz1646 – 1716

19th century · 1

  • Ada Lovelace1815 – 1852

20th century · 6

  • John von Neumann1903 – 1957
  • Grace Hopper1906 – 1992
  • Konrad Zuse1910 – 1995
  • Alan Turing1912 – 1954
  • Claude Shannon1916 – 2001
  • Tim Berners-Leeb. 1955
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