5 Greatest Tech Masterminds of All Time

1.The world has seen amazing technological feats in the last few years, but we wouldn't be where we are today without some serious brainpower in the past. Charles Babbage, for example, designed a programmable computer in the 19th century made of gears and levers. He died without building a full version of his computer but his designs inspired future computer engineers. He’s a favorite figure among the steampunk crowd.(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
2.

Father of computer science, creator of the Turing test that determines if a machine possesses intelligence and breaker of codes for the Allies during World War II -- Alan Turing was a legitimate technological heavyweight.(© National Portrait Gallery, London)
3.

Ada Lovelace, the Enchantress of Numbers, was daughter to the famed poet Lord Byron. Working with Babbage, she saw that numbers could represent everything from music to images. She designed algorithms and programs before there were any computers to run them!(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
4.

A Navy officer and computer scientist, Grace Murray Hopper was one of the earliest computer programmers. Her work led to the development of programming languages like COBOL. According to one legend, Hopper coined the terms “debugging” and “computer bug” when she had to remove an actual moth from the inner workings of a computer.(Public Doman Image)
5.

Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, observed that due to improvements in manufacturing, technology and economic efficiencies, the number of discrete elements on a microchip doubles every two years. We call it Moore’s law and it’s why your computer is obsolete before you even get it out of the box.(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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