Pierre-Simon

Back in the Enlightenment, Pierre-Simon de Laplace imagined a machine that could calculate the future.

An Historic Snippet 2009

Pierre-Simon Laplace — The Laplace transform, which is related to the Fourier Transform, is also used commonly in computer science.

The Volokh Conspiracy » People’s Names in Computing 2009

Euler were the most brilliant stars in an entire constellation of mechanical theorists and astronomers, and to this group there succeeded another, in which shone two men of surpassing intellectuality, Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736-1813) and Pierre-Simon

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

With Pierre-Simon Laplace, this became the bedrock of reductionism: Given the positions and momenta of all the particles in the universe, a vast intelligence could, using Newton's laws, deduce the entire future and past of the universe.

NPR Topics: News 2011

In 1814, French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace described an entity, later called Laplace's Demon, that was capable of calculating and determining all future events, provided that the demon was given the positions, masses, and velocities of every atom in the universe and the various known formulae of motion.

Boing Boing Mark Frauenfelder 2011

"Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (23 April 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics.

Was It Worth It? 2009