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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a philosopher and mathematician who independently co-invented calculus alongside Isaac Newton. While Newton focused on the physical application, Leibniz developed the notation system ($d/dx$ and $\int$) that is still used by mathematicians today. His genius also extended to the development of the binary number system, the very foundation of modern digital computing. Leibniz was a tireless optimist who proposed a 'universal characteristic,' a symbolic language that could express all human thought through logical calculation. He believed that the world we live in is the 'best of all possible worlds' that God could have created, a philosophy famously satirized by Voltaire.