Charles Babbage Quote

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.


Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), ch. 5 "Difference Engine No. 1"


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...

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...

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...

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...