It is often remarked that the planet in astrology that rules computers is Uranus. That is, consult any astrological “cookbook” and under Uranus, the keyword “computers” is more than likely to surface. Similarly, consult an astrologer and if Uranus is prominent in one’s birth chart, then a question like, “Have you ever considered computers for your career?” might be brought into the session.

How did Uranus become affiliated with computers? Is this a fair assessment or simply an association that started without any merit or legitimacy? It would be simply too reductionistic to suggest that Uranus is only affiliated with computers, but in a broader perspective, Uranus is correlated with anything that improves the initial conditions of the human predicament. Since Uranus was found at the apex of the Age of Enlightenment, astrologers have surmised that Uranus is correlated with energy that advances the human condition in some way. The Age of Enlightenment brought Europe out of the Dark Ages. From an astrological perspective, Uranus is the planet that brings individuals and humanity out of the dark and into the light. At its broadest, Uranus is the archetype of experimentation, innovation, and “spark” that evolves us into a higher form of being. Sometimes these experimentations are dead ends, or have their negative repercussions.(1) However, from a macroscopic viewpoint, typically Uranus can awaken us and excite us into a new evolutionary state.

From this larger perspective, we can see that Uranus is affiliated with computers because the computer and the Age of Information is the current cutting edge of evolution. Uranus is always to be found where the revolutionary envelope is in society—not just technologically, but spiritually, politically, and artistically as well. Thus, the energy and archetype associated with Uranus cannot be reduced to computers, but the association is currently apt since computers have taken the world by storm in the last few decades.

If the connection between Uranus and computers is an accurate one, we would want to observe a disproportionate alliance between Uranus and the individuals and collective times which are associated with computers. Put another way, if Uranus is indeed correlated with computers, there should be a positive skew involving Uranus in the birth charts of individuals that create them and at times which there are spikes in technological innovation involving computers. There are at least three ways in which one should readily observe a heightened Uranus relative to computer innovation: (1) The birth charts of those who make a considerable impact in the field of computer technology should show a prominent Uranus placement (2) The Uranus transit cycle should correlate with times in individuals’ lives when major advances and breakthroughs in computer technology occurs and (3) Uranus should be highlighted during times in which there are major and noticeable advancements in computer technology. The below list of correlations should only be approached as a preliminary sketch, not an exhaustive body of research.

Uranus, the Individual, and Computers:

The following three individuals share the commonality of being revolutionaries in the field of computers and have Uranus in significant angular relationship to the position of the Sun in the birth chart. But beyond the similarity of computers, these individuals also display other attributes commonly ascribed to the astrological Uranus. Jack Kilby, the inventor of the microchip, did not labor for years on his invention, but made his remarkable breakthrough in an extraordinarily small period of time. The incredibly compacted period of discovery—the ‘a ha’ experience—is often a signature of the astrological Uranus. Bill Gates, who needs no introduction, displays the youthful rebelliousness and “road-less-traveled” characteristics of Uranus. Following his own path, Gates dropped out of Harvard and pursued a career in microcomputing. Finally, Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux operating system, exhibits the humanitarian or democratizing face of Uranus. Rebelling against the monolithic Microsoft, Torvalds was instrumental in creating an operating system that symbolized a challenge to the monopoly that Microsoft has held over the computer industry.

Jack Kilby (November 8 1923; Sun trine Uranus)

The recently deceased Jack Kilby is one of the most important innovators in the world of computers and electronics. An engineer little-known outside of his field, Kilby is the inventor of the microchip, or integrated circuit, an invention which allowed for the revolution in computers and electronics. Kilby’s one stroke of genius—occurring in the heat of the summer of 1958—has allowed computers, once room-sized machines, to become smaller and smaller and yet more powerful. Kilby’s quantum breakthrough is thought to be one of the most significant single advances in computer technology.

Bill Gates (October 28 1955; Sun square Uranus)

Precocious, curious, and rebellious, Gates, in one lifetime, is both a promethean hero—spearheading the computer revolution—and hacker enemy number one—the man who epitomizes the possibility of a computerized totalitarian state. On one hand, Gates symbolizes the best of the computer revolution: the entrepreneurial spirit, the extreme mental creativity, and the possibility for the betterment of life and business. On the other hand, Gates symbolizes all that is wrong with the Information Age, perhaps best encapsulated in his quote, "All the neurons in the brain that make up perceptions and emotions operate in a binary fashion," he explains. "We can someday replicate that on a machine." (2)

Linus Torvalds (December 28 1969; Sun square Uranus)

The heir apparent to Bill Gates, Torvalds’s life has remarkable similarities to Gates’s biography. Both men made staggering, bold strokes in the computer industry at a very early age. Torvalds created the kernel for the Linux operating system, a program that is arguably more important in theory then it is in application. Linux is the most notorious open source program—a program that is freely distributed and can be modified by the public. The open source philosophy represents an entirely new mode of distribution that could have extraordinary economic implications in time.

The Uranus Transit Cycle and Breakthrough:

Uranus as a transiting influence is often known for its liberating, exciting qualities. On a spiritual level, Uranus transits often correlate with epiphanies, visions, or awakenings of a profound character. On a more quotidian level, Uranus transits often correlate with the establishment of something highly novel or times of remarkable discovery or innovation. As the planet of higher logic and breakthrough, Uranus transits often are associated with times in our lives that are charged with the excitement of possibility and the electricity of change.

The following are a small sampling of correlations associated with Uranus transits in the lives of important computer pioneers and revolutionaries. When Uranus transited their birth chart, major breakthroughs occurred that impacted not only their own lives but the evolution of computers as well. (3)

Charles Babbage (December 26 1791)

Babbage, often considered the grandfather of the computer, was a mathematician responsible for the creation of programmable machines that could compute calculations faster than the human mind. Babbage’s lifelong obsession with building calculating machines presaged the computer revolution of the twentieth century. He truly was a man before his time. Although Baggage was a tireless innovator, his great epiphanic moment came to him when transiting Uranus crossed his natal Sun, in the year 1822. At this time, Babbage outlined the workings for a difference engine, the first design for his calculating machine. The blueprints for the designs that came to him at this time helped him to receive a grant from the British government, and Babbage initiated a lifelong quest to build the first computers.

Steve Jobs (February 24 1955)

Jobs, the pioneer behind Apple, is often categorized with Bill Gates, as both individuals are not only computer pioneers but great business leaders as well. The Uranus transit cycle to the position to Jobs’s Sun has characterized pivotal sequences in Jobs’s own biography. In 1976, when transiting Uranus formed a trine (or 120 degree angular relationship) to Jobs’s Sun, Jobs formed Apple computer. When transiting Uranus recently crossed over Jobs’s Sun in early Pisces, Apple computer, at the brink of collapse, regained strength due largely in part to the success of the iPod and iTunes concepts. Apple’s initial birth and comeback correlated with the pivotal times in Jobs’s Uranus cycle to the position of his Sun.

Jeff Bezos (January 12 1964)

Bezos founded his mighty startup company, Amazon, in 1994, as transiting Uranus crossed over his natal Sun. In 1994, Bezos connected two pivotal ideas: one, the world wide web, which was growing at an astronomical rate, was not being used for business, and, two, books would make a for an easy product to distribute over the web. The spark of the idea led to the ultimate founding of Amazon.com, one of the giants of ecommerce.

Uranus and the Collective:

As the Uranus transit cycle often correlates with large breakthroughs in individuals’ lives, we would suspect that quantum leaps in computer evolution would also correlate with times when Uranus was highlighted in the collective. The following is a very brief outline of major time periods of heightened activity in the growth of computers and its correlations with Uranus.

Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the Nineteenth Century (1846-1856): Boolean Logic

When Uranus and Pluto form major alignments, societies typically go through a significant growth in technology and innovation. Pluto often drives and intensifies another archetype with extreme power, thus, Pluto’s energy often pushes significantly on Uranus’s proclivity for innovation and creative breakthroughs. During the conjunction of the mid-nineteenth century, important discoveries and advances occurred that would setup the coming of the computer revolution of the twentieth century. During this time, mathematician George Boole created a form of logic (known as Boolean logic) that would create the foundation of all computer science and programming language. His operators are still in use today, popularly employed in the logic of internet search engines. Boolean logic, along with Babbage’s work on the difference engine, represents the great advances in computer science in the nineteenth century.

Uranus’s Return to Discovery Position (1947): The Transistor

Many individuals consider the invention of the transistor to be the single most important discovery of the twentieth century—an invention that has had as profound an impact on contemporary society as the printing press had on Renaissance Europe. Without the transistor, there would be no electronics industry or computers. The transistor was born at the end of 1947 due to the work of Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley at Bell Labs. The transistor was born at the point when Uranus had made two full cycles in its orbit since its discovery in 1781. When a planet “returns” to a position of birth or discovery, its archetype is potently active in the collective. Certainly the creation of the transistor is a major technological advance and correlates with the archetype of Uranus.

Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the Twentieth Century (1960-1972): The Computer Industry is born

With Pluto empowering and intensifying Uranus in the 1960s, technology went through a major evolutionary growth period, and electronics and computers were certainly at the forefront of the major quantum growth that was occurring now. During this decade, the outlines for both the internet and personal computer were born. Simultaneously, available computers of this era—often called third generation computers—far outshone anything that came before it in power and storage capacity. Computers were beginning to affect daily life in a way that was inconceivable in the 1950s. The 1960s also saw the emergence of Silicon Valley, with the birth of Xerox PARC and Intel. Finally, the end of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction saw the birth of Pong, the first commercial video game.

Jupiter-Uranus opposition of 1975-76: The Birth of the Personal Computer

Although not as titanic or profound as the creative expressions of Uranus with the outer planets, Jupiter-Uranus alignments, most notably the conjunction and the opposition, correlate with significant breakthroughs, typically building upon the major innovations of the preceding Uranus cycle with the outer planets of Pluto and Neptune. The Jupiter-Uranus opposition of the mid-1970s saw the logical progression of the computer revolution as the personal computer was truly born. The first personal computer, the MITS Altair, was introduced into the economy. At the same time, Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Jupiter-Uranus conjunction of 1983: The Next Generation of Personal Computer

The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction of 1983 saw a significant leap in the personal computing industry, as two significant innovations made an impact on the personal computer market. Apple released the Lisa computer and constructed the Macintosh computer at this point in time. The great innovation of these computers was that they were the first to employ a graphical user interface (going beyond a simple screen with a blinking cursor). Concurrently, Microsoft announced plans for its Windows operating system, which would become the dominate software for the next two decades.

Uranus-Neptune Conjunction of the Twentieth Century(1987-2001): The Internet and Graphics

Whereas Pluto is the planetary archetype that most often concerns power and intensity, Neptune is more concerned with image and interconnection. As Uranus conjoined Neptune at the tail end of the twentieth century, the computer industry was revolutionized by graphics and the emergence of the world wide web—revolutions that were highly indicative of the synthesis between Uranus and Neptune. Before the 1990s, the internet was sparsely used, however, during this decade, and seemingly out of nowhere, the internet grew at an extraordinary pace. By the end of the decade, the internet had integrated itself into everyday life. At the same time, the computer industry experienced an extraordinary expanse in graphics—from the birth of graphics programs like Photoshop to the use of undreamed of motion graphics in Hollywood film. Just as Silicon Valley had been born in the 1960s, the 1990s saw the extraordinary rise of the major fx studios like Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic.

Jupiter-Uranus opposition of 2003-04: Wireless

We can see the latest alignment of Jupiter and Uranus as a logical extension of the Uranus-Neptune conjunction of the 1990s. The innovations of this decade will be built upon by the subsequent Jupiter-Uranus alignments. This small period of time saw the rise of wireless connectivity—an almost astronomical growth in wireless technology exploded at this point in time.

All birth dates from Wikipedia.com

(1) One might see Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” as the piece of fiction that most accurately captures the dark, or shadow side, of the archetype of Uranus.

(2) Interview in Time Magazine, January 13, 1997 Vol. 149 No.2

(3) The most thorough study of the Uranus transit cycle can be found in Prometheus the Awakener by Richard Tarnas. Wookstock CT: Spring Publications. 1995.