3 ms·
>> On 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 ou
by tivert 3y ago
>> On 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 to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
I'm a couple centuries late, but I think "kind of confusion" might be a confusion of brain-dead calculation for intelligence. A person can frequently identify "wrong" input and either correct it or refuse to answer, while a calculating machine never can.
- ryanmcbride 3y agoWhich is precisely why I've created my new invention! By simply ignoring the user's input and throwing out a random answer, my new device is infinitely more capable of generating the right answer from wrong figures than existing machines! Sure the odds are only 1 in 50 billion, but it's certainly better than these so called "super computers" that can't handle a misplaced semicolon!