Re:1953 US Navy training film on mechanical computers [video]
by Mordisquitos on Tuesday August 20, 2024 @11:54AM
(#41301175)
That made me think of a quote from Charles Babbage, arguably the inventor of the mechanical computer. I wonder if it was added intentionally as a reference:
> 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.
– Charles Babbage in Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)
> 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.
– Charles Babbage in Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)