It was a fairly audacious prediction, that turns out to have been true. I think it’s fair to allow Babbage to describe as an analytical engine what we would nowadays call a “computer”.
Computers have revolutionized most fields of science. I take it as a general “yay science/engineer/computers” quote.
Babbage’s prediction isn’t about computers in general; it is about the Analytical Engine (which, as I pointed out, has never been constructed in its entirety).
So, what’s the relevance of the fact that his Engine “has never been constructed in its entirety” if machines that can do everything it could do do exist?
So, what’s the relevance of the fact that his Engine “has never been constructed in its entirety” if machines that can do everything it could do do exist?
What relevance is any fact about “modern computers” to the truth value or usefulness of this quote? Babbage isn’t making a general claim about computers and science, he is bragging about a product he designed, but that never made it to the market.
I’d be charitable and interpret the quote the way scav did. He said “an Analytic Engine”, not “my Analytic Engine”—he did use capital letters but ISTM that people back then used them all the time.
Charles Babbage
I suppose we don’t know if this is true, since it doesn’t yet exist. BTW, what has this to do with rationality?
It was a fairly audacious prediction, that turns out to have been true. I think it’s fair to allow Babbage to describe as an analytical engine what we would nowadays call a “computer”.
Computers have revolutionized most fields of science. I take it as a general “yay science/engineer/computers” quote.
Babbage’s prediction isn’t about computers in general; it is about the Analytical Engine (which, as I pointed out, has never been constructed in its entirety).
What could his Analytical Engine do that a modern computer can’t? (BTW, I’ve just read the lead of the Wikipedia article and I’m seriously impressed.)
Nothing.
So, what’s the relevance of the fact that his Engine “has never been constructed in its entirety” if machines that can do everything it could do do exist?
What relevance is any fact about “modern computers” to the truth value or usefulness of this quote? Babbage isn’t making a general claim about computers and science, he is bragging about a product he designed, but that never made it to the market.
I’d be charitable and interpret the quote the way scav did. He said “an Analytic Engine”, not “my Analytic Engine”—he did use capital letters but ISTM that people back then used them all the time.