Was Babbage's Analytical Engine intended to be a mechanical model of the mind?
In the 1830s, Charles Babbage worked on a mechanical computer he dubbed the Analytical Engine. Although some people around Babbage described his invention as though it had authentic mental powers, Babbage refrained from making such claims. He does not, however, seem to have discouraged those he worked with from mooting the idea publicly. This article investigates whether (1) the Analytical Engine was the focus of a covert research program into the mechanism of mentality; (2) Babbage opposed the idea that the Analytical Engine had mental powers but allowed his colleagues to speculate as they saw fit; or (3) Babbage believed such claims to be fanciful, but cleverly used the publicity they engendered to draw public and political attention to his project.
Green
Christopher D
CD
York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. christo@yorku.ca
D019336:Cognitive Science / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation; D003201:Computers / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008432:Mathematical Computing