Here’s a slick video of the new, second Difference Engine, built according to Charles Babbage’s 19481848 plans. The narrative is over-heated, but the visuals are nice.

I’ve been continuing to read about Babbage because I think he provides an interesting way to argue that information didn’t exist before the middle of the 20th century. It’s a mistake to view even Babbage’s more advanced machine (the Analytic Engine) as dealing with information, much less as a computer. But I’m not ready to make that argument yet. I’m having a lot of fun researching it, though.

[Tags: babbage history_of_computing ]

9 Comments »