New Thinking

James Watt was the inventor of the first practical steam engine. His exploitation water’s thermodynamic properties (water turns to steam when heated and expands) to produce motion, kick-started the industrial revolution.

Nikola Tesla

Michael Faraday was Instrumental in our understanding electromagnetism. He Laid the foundation for the DC motor and created the electric generator.
Michael Faraday was also prolific in chemistry, discovering the law of electrolysis and coining terms such as cathode, anode and ion.

Ada Lovelace was the first to realise that the computers had applications beyond pure calculation. She wrote the first computer program in 1843.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and did a large amount of work for the deaf community. Alex also founded the Bell company which went on to aid in the invention of the modem and transistor.

The Wright brothers discovered and applied the basic principles of flight, paving the way for all modern air travel.

Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity changed our understanding between the relationship of space and time. The understandings from Einstein have very real applications today. For example, GPS’ use the predictions for the theory to provide accurate location data.

Vannevar Bush led 30,000 brilliant scientists America wide during the second world war. He would lay out the mental idea for the internet and inspire those that built the Web. His philosophical ideas would inspire others like Douglas Englebart, the inventor of the graphical user interface.

Robert Noyce led a team of scientists and engineers to create the integrated circuit and would later co-found Intel (the inventors of the first CPU). The CPU and more-so integrated circuit are both fundamental parts of any modern technology.

Alan Turing was instrumental in computing science, coming up with the thought experiment for general purpose computing, aiding the allied victory in the 2nd world war with the Bombe German code breaker and developing the Turing test to evaluate A.I. realism.

J.C.R Licklider solidified the technical vision of the internet and laid the blueprints for those who would build it a few years later.

Douglas Engelbart was a pioneer in human computer interaction. Inspired by Vannevear Bush’s vision, Engelbart went on to invent the mouse, graphical user interface and word processor. His work would directly influence the Xerox Alto computer - the first modern PC.

Geoffrey Hinton developed the idea of deep neural networks in the 1980’s and was the first to prove to the world that they were practical, kicking of the ‘A.I.’ revolution in 2012 in the process.

Richard Feynman is a pioneer in quantum mechanics and was the first to propose key ideas like nanotechnology and quantum computers.

Steve Jobs got his start by selling the first popular personal computer, the Apple II. Jobs would go on to lead multiple teams in designing: The first successful graphical computer, NEXTSTEP system (the software used to build the world wide web), iPod and iPhone.

Bill Gates got his start writing code in BASIC for the first consumer microcomputer (PC), the Altair 8800. This was the first piece of Microsoft software, it was pivotal in driving the PC revolution. Even Apple II computers were using Microsoft BASIC software.

Tim B. Lee invented the world wide web and web browser on a NEXTSTEP computer at his time at CERN. The world wide web eliminated is what made the internet accessible to the average person.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin would index all of the world’s information in the Google search engine (built off the web). Google made the information truly useful and resulted in the explosion of human knowledge for the 21st century.

Elon Musk pushed the state of sustainable with Tesla motors and cut the cost of space exploration drastically via SpaceX. The work of Tesla kick-started the electric car revolution of the late 2010’s

Demis Hassabis’ company Deep Mind was the first company to prove that A.I. could learn. The company’s algorithm ‘Alpha Go’ beat the world champion at the world’s hardest game, the ancient Chinese game of ‘Go’, through a combination of deep and reinforcement learning.