5 ms·
Charles Babbage – Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
- matt_f 5y agoI looked into the source of the above link and it's a collaborative git-managed team effort. https://standardebooks.org/about https://standardebooks.org/about What an awesome project.
- adhesive_wombat 5y agoWikisource also has On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures[1] in their current Monthly "sprint"[2] [1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:On_the_economy_of_machinery_and_manufactures_-_Babbage_-_1846.djvu https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:On_the_economy_of_machi... [2] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Community_collaboration/Monthly_Challenge/December_2021 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Community_collabor...
- jackfoxy 5y agoThis is a good read documenting technology history in the first half of the 19th century. Babbage drew on his experiences trying to source manufactured parts for his Analytical Engine. At the time manufacturers just could not meet the specifications (tolerances) for the many mass-produced parts the project required. I think by the end of Babbage's life the parts could have been manufactured, but by then both Babbage and his financiers had moved on.
- andai 5y agoOn two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
- yesenadam 5y agoUsing an error-correcting code he could say "Well, sometimes, yes!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_correction_code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_correction_code
- samwillis 5y agoGood to see his estimation of the British parliament still stands today…
- moffkalast 5y agoHaha yeah this reminds me of that recent Google congressional hearing where the only thing they accomplished was showing how little the questioners understand anything at all about tech.
- wrp 5y agoThis quote comes up whenever Babbage is mentioned among geeks, but the common interpretation of its significance may be wrong. The quote is assumed to illustrate the hardship of a genius communicating with a society of dunces, but I think the problem may have been the reverse. The fact is that Babbage was a terrible explainer and the questions put to him may have been sensible extrapolation on what he said. I came to this opinion largely from seeing how much effort Ada Lovelace had to put into getting Babbage to clarify his ideas. It seems that he truly could not "apprehend the kind of confusion" that his explanations caused in others.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- samwillis 5y agoSee also “Plan 28” a project that plans to build a replica of Charles Babbages Analytical engine. (Started by HNs and CloudFlares jgrahamc) https://plan28.org/ https://plan28.org/
- retrac 5y agoI'm a bit conflicted. On one hand, it is a sin that it still hasn't been built! And it must be powered by a literal steam engine! On the other hand, Babbage never really finished the Analytical Engine. It was always in pre-alpha. In a sense, there is no Analytical Engine. Only a lifetime of sketches for various parts and extensive commentary on how the various parts might fit together. An actual implementation requires making a lot of hard decisions, and basically inventing a fair bit as well. It's clear the Plan 28 folks appreciate all this, of course. They've appropriately started with a complete review of the literature: > With the first-pass inspection of the manuscript archive complete, attention has turned to analysis and interpretation, and organising the findings to aid navigation. Babbage shed versions of the design as it developed in the form of ‘Plans’ – large ‘systems drawings’ which serve as developmental staging posts – the main ones of which number Plan 1 through to Plan 28. This might hint at why Babbage ultimately failed, really. He was a tinkerer and he didn't commit to a design. It was always provisional. When he ran into a minor hitch, or had another good idea, he would go back to the drawing board and start over. If he had just committed and scaled up the original, much simpler and fully-designed difference engine he had been contracted for, he might just have got the funding to continue more theoretical and larger-scale work with thinking machines.
- jgrahamc 5y agoHappy to AMA about that.
- jurassic 5y agoFor any Charles Babbage fangirls/boys out there, the Royal Mint recently honored him with a commemorative 50p coin as part of their Innovation in Science series: https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/charles-babbage/charles-babbage-50p-silver-proof-coin https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/events/charles-babbage/c...
- new_guy 5y agoSadly once we all go cashless commemorative coins will be a thing of the past.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoThere will still be NFTs :)
- jurassic 5y agoI kinda doubt that. The US Mint manufactures a ton of commemorative coins in denominations and materials (e.g. silver dollars, gold $5, etc) that have no relationship to the circulating coinage. As long as there’s an audience for it, I expect they will keep launching products.
- ffhhj 5y agoExpected to see his face on the other side of the coin.
- Ftuuky 5y agoIt eludes me how nobody has yet made a movie about Babbage and Lovelace. Such colorful characters and way ahead of their times.
- RustyRussell 5y agoI am reminded of The Simpsons here, in a different context: "Even the car chase seemed tacked on!" I'm not sure a Hollywood version of this history would benefit the world in any way.
- NikolaeVarius 5y agohttps://www.amazon.com/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-Babbage-Computer/dp/0307908275 https://www.amazon.com/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-Babbage...
- kwhitefoot 5y agoSee also Sydney Padua's 2D Goggles: https://2dgoggles.com/ https://2dgoggles.com/
- mwfunk 5y agoBabbage's eccentricities and loopier thoughts were always more interesting to me than his writing about the things he's better known for. I read this many years ago but for some reason the part that stuck with me the most was a surprisingly long stretch articulating all the different ways in which organ grinder monkeys were public menaces. His loathing of street musicians was comical but the degree of spite specifically reserved for organ grinder monkeys took it to the next level. It's been a while since I read it, but I definitely got the sense that that was very much how he felt and he wasn't playing it up for comedy. He wasn't the most likable or relatable guy but he certainly was passionate.