<human>:  Where did the binary search algorithm come from?
<bot>: Binary search was invented by Alan Turing in 1936. It was a way to find the kth smallest element in a list of n elements. It works by dividing the list into two halves, and then searching each half. If the element is in the first half, then it is the kth smallest element. If the element is in the second half, then it is not the kth smallest element.