Abstract: Logic started as a branch of philosophy, going back to Greeks, who loved debates, in the classical period. Computers are relatively young, dating back to World War II, in the middle of the 20th century. This talk tells the story of how logic begat computing, tracing the surprising path from Aristotle to the iPhone. This is a story full of both intellectual drama, as well as real-life drama, with most of the characters dying young, miserable, or both.

The talk is a World Logic Day event and is aimed at a general audience.

World Logic Day 2021, on January 14th, is co-sponsored by the Conseil International de Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines (CIPSH) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Visit the World Logic Day website for a complete list of events.

Bio: Moshe Y. Vardi is University Professor and the Karen Ostrum George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University. He is the recipient of several awards, including the ACM SIGACT Goedel Prize, the ACM Kanellakis Award, the ACM SIGMOD Codd Award, the Blaise Pascal Medal, the IEEE Computer Society Goode Award, and the EATCS Distinguished Achievements Award. He is the author and co-author of over 650 papers, as well as two books. He is a fellow of several societies, and a member of several academies, including the US National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Science. He holds seven honorary doctorates. He is a Senior Editor of the Communications of the ACM, the premier publication in computing.

For more information, please contact Rice University's Department of Computer Science at comp@rice.edu.