SONNET 6 by George Boole (1815-1864)...

SONNET 6 by George Boole (1815-1864)

Note:

Mathematician, philosopher, logician, poet, first professor of mathematics at then newly formed Queen's College Cork (now University College Cork), and astonishingly self-taught for having to brilliantly develop then establish what later became known as Boolean algebra/logic. 

Thou that in secret chambers dost portray

The pictures of the past, whence some return,

And some, like ashes in the buried urn,

Lie hid, not lost, till one Diviner Ray

Shall through thy inmost caverns pour the day;

Oh, Memory! If to me thy lessons stern

Sometimes appear, let me not less discern

The deep and wholesome wisdom they convey;

But when the years to vanity betrayed

Rise threat'ning from gulfs to which they fled

Give me to see in each reproachful shade

A messenger, on solemn errand sped;

`Tis not with purpose vain they they invade

The nightly pillow and the wakeful bed.

June 1849

According to Desmond MacHale, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, in his book The Poetry of George Boole (Oct 2020)...

"On the surface, this sonnet would appear to be a straightforward tribute to the physical and spiritual aspects of memory, but in the light of subsequent events, perhaps it has a deeper significance than even Boole himself may have been aware of. It (Sonnet 6) was written in 1949, between the publications of his two major books, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic in 1847, and The Laws of Thought in 1854. In the hands and fertile mind of Claude Shannon (1916-2001) these books led to an algebraic formulation of the operation of electronic switching circuits and eventually to the invention of the modern digital computer. Boole relates that he was blessed with an almost photographic memory which he later described in the following words:

This does not result so much from strength of memory as from the power of arrangement which provides its proper place in the mind for every fact and idea and thus enables me to find at once what I want just as you would know in a well-ordered set of drawers where to lay your hand in a moment upon any article you required.

In Sonnet 6, was Boole now thinking about the physical process of memory in the human brain, and how information is stored there, and why certain memories 'lie hid but not lost'?"

Hence the necessary prerequisites or building blocks (among others) towards the Digital/Information Age; the refinement of the binary numbering system by Leibniz, the development of Boolean algebra/logic by Boole, then the formation of the Digital Circuit Design Theory by Shannon.

I recommend McHale's book The Poetry of George Boole, as well George Boole's book An Investigation of the Laws of Thought.

Come let Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.