2. Analytical Engine: “an out-of-pocket machine” In the early nineteenth century, only the mathematician and philosopher Charles Babbage, who did much to further the tradition of British eccentricity, and his accomplice, Ada Lovelace, seemed fully to appreciate that profound ideas were taking shape. Although Babbage is recognised today only as the father of the modern computer, he was, as was the custom of the time, a polymath with views on all kinds of issues outside his official domain of expertise. For example, he wrote On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures to propose a system of co-partnership for workers so that they may share in profits and join owners in decision-making – this at a time (1834) when the ruling classes were seeking to starve strikers into submission and ban trade unions by law. He also proposed the creation of an electric grid (which did not happen for another fifty years) and he recommended the decimalisation of the British currency (which eventually occurred in 1971) although the latter is not so insightful as the French had converted to decimal currency in 1799, abandoning the 12 deniers in a sol, 20 sols in a livre system that had complicated Pascal’s calculator.
Babbage first dreamed of constructing an automatic calculating machine in 1812 or thereabouts and pursued this dream relentlessly until he died in 1871, having succeeded in principle but failed miserably in practice. His first design was for a Difference Engine, intended to calculate tables of logarithms. It was based upon the ‘method of differences’, which is basically a way of repeatedly calculating successive values using only addition. Detailed plans and a prototype were eventually developed and submitted to the British Government for support and duly received the qualified recommendation typical of governmental advisors and politicians out of their technological depth:
My dear Peel,“Arduous” proved to be no understatement. Government grants totalling £17,000, which is equivalent to over a million euro today and thus a very generous grant, enabled workmen of the highest skill to begin the mechanical construction. However, numerous delays and difficulties occurred, not least because Babbage continually developed new insights to improve the design after the workmen had started implementation. By 1830 the project had been suspended, Babbage having been accused of dishonesty in misusing Government money (although he was later exonerated by a Royal Society enquiry, which blamed the delay on the Government), having fallen out with his chief engineer, and having aggravated potential allies in government and scientific circles.
Mr. Babbage’s invention is at first sight incredible, but if you will recollect those little numerical locks which one has seen in France, in which a series of numbers are written on a succession of wheels, you will have some idea of the first principles of this machine, which is very curious and ingenious, and which not only will calculate all regular series, but also arranges the types for printing all the figures. At present indeed it is a matter more of curiosity than use, and I believe some good judges doubt whether it can ever be of any. But when I consider what has been already done by what were called Napier’s bones and Gunter’s scale, and the infinite and undiscovered variety of what may be called the mechanical powers of numbers, I cannot but admit the possibility, nay the probability, that important consequences may be ultimately derived from Mr. Babbage’s principle.John Wilson Croker (March 21 1823), letter to Mr. Peel (Home Secretary in the British Government).It appears that Mr. Babbage has displayed great talents and ingenuity in the construction of his machine for computation which the Committee think fully adequate to the attainment of the objects proposed by the inventor, and that they consider Mr. Babbage as highly deserving of public encouragement in the prosecution of his arduous undertaking.Parliamentary Paper No. 370 (May 22 1823).However, the main reason for the project’s failure was the fact that Babbage was germinating ideas that he could see would render the Difference Engine obsolete. His new Analytical Engine was inspired by the design of Jacquard looms, which were capable of weaving any pattern specified by means of punched holes in pasteboard cards. A manufacturer might use the same cards but different coloured threads to vary the colour but not the form of the product. Similarly, the central idea of the Analytical Engine was to separate the operations to be performed from the objects to be operated upon:
The Analytical Engine consists of two parts: -The realisation that operations can be represented in a form that machines may interpret was of far greater significance than the engineering of the machine itself.
1st. The store in which all the variables to be operated upon, as well as all those quantities which have arisen from the result of other operations, are placed.
2nd. The mill into which the quantities about to be operated upon are always brought.
... There are therefore two sets of cards, the first to direct the nature of the operations to be performed – these are called operation cards: the other to direct the particular variables on which those cards are required to operate – these latter are called variable cards ... The Analytical Engine is therefore a machine of the most general nature ... Every set of cards made for any formula will at any future time recalculate that formula with whatever constants may be required.Charles Babbage (1864), Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, London: Clowes.It all boils down to what you’ve got to operate with and how you operate.Mayo Smith, baseball manager (1956).Babbage first conveyed his ideas about the Analytical Engine to the British Government in December 1834. Babbage himself was in no doubt of the significance of such an invention:
Whenever engines of this kind exist in the capitals and universities of the world, it is obvious that all those enquirers who wish to put their theories to the test of number, will apply their efforts so to shape the analytical results at which they have arrived, that they shall be susceptible of calculation by machinery in the shortest possible time, and the whole course of their analysis will be directed towards this object.Unfortunately, Babbage had already alienated his potential allies during the Difference Engine project, by, for example, criticizing the Royal Society management, considered by him to be formed of dilettanti rather than active scientists, for its improper conduct of elections, and also criticizing the British Government for under-funding science in general and for funding the wrong projects in particular.Charles Babbage (1837), On the Mathematical Powers of the Calculating Engine.He then exacerbated his problems with further profound but perhaps unwise speculations. First, Babbage unapologetically described his Analytical Engine in anthropomorphic terms, which some people found offensive:
The analogy between these acts and the operations of the mind almost forced upon me the figurative employment of the same terms. They were found at once convenient and expressive, and I prefer to continue their use rather than to substitute lengthened circumlocutions. For instance, “the engine knows, etc.” means that one out of many possible results of its calculations has happened, and that certain changes in its arrangements have taken place, by which it is compelled to carry out the next computation in a certain appointed way.In addition, he could not refrain from speculating upon the implications of his engine for subjects other than mathematical analysis. For example, he re-interpreted a paper he had written in 1838 on the nature of miracles in terms of his Analytical Engine:Charles Babbage (1864), Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, London: Clowes.The workings of machinery run parallel to those of intellect. The Analytical Engine might be so set, that at definite periods, known only to its maker, a certain lever might become moveable during the calculations then making. The consequence of moving it might be to cause the then existing law to be violated for one or more times, after which the original law would resume its reign. Of course the maker of the Calculating Engine might confide this fact to the person using it, who would thus be gifted with the power of prophecy if he foretold the event, or of working a miracle at the proper time, if he withheld his knowledge from those around until the moment of its taking place. Such is the analogy between the construction of machinery to calculate and the occurrence of miracles.According to Babbage, his ideas about miracles had been “adopted by many of the most profound thinkers of very different religious opinions.”Charles Babbage (1864), Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, London: Clowes.Babbage thus began three traditions that AI researchers and developers (henceforth, ‘AIers’, in the absence of a more convenient, established term) continue to the present day. First, he combined grandiose ambition with a failure to deliver – a failure that was quite understandable in the circumstances but provided an easy target for critics. Secondly, he indulged in provocative anthropomorphic descriptions of mechanical devices. Thirdly, he went out of his way to goad those without technical expertise who were concerned about the deeper implications of his work. He surely intended his comments comparing his machinery with the occurrence of miracles to upset Victorian sensibilities – and, naturally, those with a professional interest in such matters reacted:
Mr. Babbage, consciously or unconsciously, mixes up mind and matter in a way which is sure to puzzle less philosophic readers. The workings of the intellect and the workings of his machine are always assumed to be conducted on the same principle. Of his engine, we have seen, he speaks habitually as if it were a thinking, reasoning being. It is, to say the least of it, a little startling to hear ‘that mechanism had been taught not only to foresee, but also to act upon that foresight.’ Note again the marked way in which he always asserts the superiority of mechanism over mind. His automaton is better than a living player at all games of skill. He has, indeed, the grace to confess that the first move must be made by human agency ... But that first move is all that is needed.These reflections are quite remarkable given that “his automaton” did not even exist. Babbage did speculate on the use of machines to play games such as chess and these speculations seem to have been sufficient for others to attribute to his non-existent machine superiority at all games of skill. The tradition of engaging in philosophical discussions about the implications of machinery before it has been implemented also continues to this day.The Christian Remembrancer (1866).Meanwhile, back in the 1830s, the British Government procrastinated. They did not know what to make of the apparent failure to deliver the Difference Engine and they assuredly did not appreciate the full significance of the Analytical Engine. Even as late as 1878, a Committee to advise the Government was unable to come off the fence:
... having regard to all these considerations, we have come, not without reluctance, to the conclusion that we cannot advise the British Association to take any steps, either by way of recommendation or otherwise, to procure the construction of Mr. Babbage’s Analytical Engine and the printing tables by its means.Increasingly embittered, Babbage continued to squander his personal fortune on trying to construct the Analytical Engine:C.W. Merrifield (1878), Report of the Committee appointed to consider the advisability of constructing Mr. Babbage’s Analytical Machine.A short time after the arrival of Count Strzelecki in England, I had the pleasure of meeting him at the table of a common friend. Many enquiries were made relative to his residence in China. Much interest was expressed by several of the party to learn on what subject the Chinese were most anxious to have information. Count Strzelecki told them that the subject of most frequent enquiry was Babbage’s Calculating Machine. On being asked further as to the nature of the enquiries, he said they were most anxious to know whether it would go into the pocket ... I told the Count that he might safely assure his friends in the Celestial Empire that it was in every sense of the word an out-of-pocket machine.His efforts at building the Analytical Engine provoked derision among his contemporaries. He died in 1871, unlamented and misunderstood.Charles Babbage (1864), Passages from the Life of a Philosopher, London: Clowes.During his lifetime only Ada Lovelace had fully appreciated his genius and indeed it is mainly through her interpretations and refinements of his ideas that we may do so today, in particular through her notes written in 1843 accompanying her translation of Louis Menebrae’s paper on Babbage’s Analytical Engine. These ‘notes’ are rather more substantial than the word suggests, being three times longer than the paper itself. She had died in 1852, aged 36, of cervical cancer and driven to despair by gambling debts. Her correspondence with Babbage, parts of which he destroyed, suggests that they hoped to apply the calculating machines to devise a system for winning bets on horse races.
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