http://simonwillison.net/2025-07-02T15:04:05+00:00Simon Willison2025-07-02T15:04:05+00:002025-07-02T15:04:05+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/2/charles-babbage/#atom-tag

<blockquote cite="https://archive.org/details/passagesfromlife03char/page/67/mode/1up"><p>On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.</p></blockquote> <p class="cite">&mdash; <a href="https://archive.org/details/passagesfromlife03char/page/67/mode/1up">Charles Babbage</a>, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, 1864</p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/charles-babbage">charles-babbage</a></p>

2010-10-06T09:26:00+00:002010-10-06T09:26:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2010/Oct/6/jgc/#atom-tag

<blockquote cite="http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/10/the-100-year-leap.html"><p>It might seem a folly to want to build a gigantic, relatively puny computer at great expense 170 years after its invention. But the message of a completed Analytical Engine is very clear: it’s possible to be 100 years ahead of your own time. With support, this type of “blue skies” thinking can result in fantastic changes to the lives of everyone. Just think of the impact of the computer and ask yourself how different the Victorian world would have been with Babbage Engines at its disposal.</p></blockquote> <p class="cite">&mdash; <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/10/the-100-year-leap.html">John Graham-Cumming</a></p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/charles-babbage">charles-babbage</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/john-graham-cumming">john-graham-cumming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/recovered">recovered</a></p>

2010-10-06T09:26:00+00:002010-10-06T09:26:00+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2010/Oct/6/babbage/#atom-tag

<p><strong><a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/10/the-100-year-leap.html">The 100-year leap</a></strong></p> John Graham-Cumming recounts the history of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, and proposes a project to build a working Analytical Engine 170 years after its invention (the machine built by the Science Museum in London is the Difference Engine). <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/charles-babbage">charles-babbage</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/john-graham-cumming">john-graham-cumming</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/recovered">recovered</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/ambition">ambition</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/science-museum">science-museum</a></p>

2009-11-16T16:16:17+00:002009-11-16T16:16:17+00:00https://simonwillison.net/2009/Nov/16/new/#atom-tag

<p><strong><a href="http://shorttermmemoryloss.com/menace/">A New Theory of Awesomeness and Miracles, by James Bridle, concerning Charles Babbage, Heath Robinson, MENACE and MAGE</a></strong></p> I didn’t go to Playful ’09, but I really wish I had. <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/charles-babbage">charles-babbage</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/heathrobinson">heathrobinson</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/james-bridle">james-bridle</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/mage">mage</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/menace">menace</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/playful">playful</a></p>