- 1646-1716. German polymath: mathematician, philosopher, logician, diplomat.
- Co-invented calculus independently of Newton, contributing the notation (dx, integral sign) still used today.
- Pioneered binary arithmetic, the foundation of all digital computation.
- Envisioned a “calculus ratiocinator,” a universal formal language for reasoning, anticipating symbolic AI and formal verification.
- Developed the monad concept: indivisible units of substance whose internal states mirror the whole, a philosophical precursor to distributed consensus.
- Built the Stepped Reckoner, one of the first mechanical calculators.
- His vision of a universal language of thought resonates with knowledge graph ontology and the semantic layer of cyber.