From failed minister to accidentally inventing the computer - Charles Babbage’s brilliant mind was way ahead of its time. Before electricity Babbage invented a fully functional mechanical calculator that became the foundation of the modern-day computer earning him the title of ‘Father of modern computing’.
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Show Timecode
Centuries Collide | Cody Crouch: Charles Babbage - The True Father Of Modern Computing | Centuries Collide | January 30, 2025
- (music playing)
- 00:01:29.923 --> 00:00:01.391
- - i'm cody crouch.
- 00:00:01.391 --> 00:00:02.725
- I'm traveling the globe, uncovering the origins of the
- 00:00:02.725 --> 00:00:05.361
- Stuff that we use every day.
- 00:00:05.361 --> 00:00:07.230
- On centuries collide, we're recreating some of history's
- 00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:09.699
- Greatest moments exactly how they happened.
- 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:12.102
- Well, almost exactly.
- 00:00:12.102 --> 00:00:14.270
- - the gutenberg press.
- 00:00:14.270 --> 00:00:19.042
- - oh.
- 00:00:19.342 --> 00:00:21.177
- - this is history like you've never seen it before.
- 00:00:21.177 --> 00:00:24.147
- (music playing)
- 00:00:24.147 --> 00:00:29.752
- Can you imagine a world without computers?
- 00:00:29.752 --> 00:00:33.189
- I can't.
- 00:00:33.490 --> 00:00:34.224
- We use them for everything.
- 00:00:34.224 --> 00:00:36.192
- Work, school, entertainment, travel,
- 00:00:36.192 --> 00:00:39.596
- Keeping up with old friends, and like a ton of shopping pain.
- 00:00:39.596 --> 00:00:43.266
- Not to mention, more importantly,
- 00:00:43.266 --> 00:00:45.001
- They run all the world's most complex systems — from
- 00:00:45.001 --> 00:00:47.537
- Governments to sciences to, like, the global economy.
- 00:00:47.537 --> 00:00:51.441
- Trust me, i take the rest of this episode just explaining all
- 00:00:51.441 --> 00:00:54.511
- The ways the world would look different if computers didn't
- 00:00:54.511 --> 00:00:58.114
- Exist, which would mean there'd be no internet.
- 00:00:58.114 --> 00:01:03.286
- (music playing)
- 00:01:03.753 --> 00:01:07.023
- Nothing has changed the course of our modern times more than
- 00:01:07.023 --> 00:01:10.160
- The computer.
- 00:01:10.160 --> 00:01:11.327
- It's arguably the greatest invention in the last few
- 00:01:11.327 --> 00:01:12.996
- Centuries.
- 00:01:12.996 --> 00:01:13.963
- But who do we have to thank for that?
- 00:01:13.963 --> 00:01:15.632
- Is it bill gates, alan turing, konrad zuse, steve jobs?
- 00:01:15.632 --> 00:01:20.336
- No fit steve.
- 00:01:20.336 --> 00:01:21.738
- The iphone is awesome.
- 00:01:21.738 --> 00:01:23.640
- But the truth is, we have the father of modern computing,
- 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:26.576
- Charles babbage, to thank.
- 00:01:26.576 --> 00:01:28.912
- You ever heard of him?
- 00:01:28.912 --> 00:01:30.547
- Well, to be honest, i hadn't.
- 00:01:30.547 --> 00:01:32.882
- If you know a little bit about the history of computers,
- 00:01:34.050 --> 00:01:36.119
- You know that they were created sometime in the '30s, right?
- 00:01:36.119 --> 00:01:40.156
- But you'd probably be thinking of the wrong century,
- 00:01:40.256 --> 00:01:42.792
- Not the 1930s, but rather the 1830s.
- 00:01:42.792 --> 00:01:46.763
- Yeah.
- 00:01:46.763 --> 00:01:48.131
- Back in the day of top hats and steam engines where you could
- 00:01:48.131 --> 00:01:50.934
- Die of a fever, and if you're lucky,
- 00:01:50.934 --> 00:01:52.769
- Travel from new york to london in a quick like two weeks.
- 00:01:52.769 --> 00:01:56.206
- And that's where we are today.
- 00:01:56.206 --> 00:01:58.174
- Because in order to discover one of history's greatest minds,
- 00:01:58.174 --> 00:02:01.044
- We have to explore his hometown right here in london, england.
- 00:02:01.044 --> 00:02:04.814
- Come on, let's go.
- 00:02:04.814 --> 00:02:05.715
- (music playing)
- 00:02:05.715 --> 00:02:10.153
- Babbage grew up right here in london in the late 1700s,
- 00:02:10.153 --> 00:02:13.356
- The son of a wealthy banker and his wife.
- 00:02:13.356 --> 00:02:15.625
- Around the age of eight, his life was seriously threatened by
- 00:02:15.625 --> 00:02:19.195
- Common fever, and it nearly took him out.
- 00:02:19.195 --> 00:02:22.098
- And if it had, we'd probably kiss our cell phones, pcs,
- 00:02:22.098 --> 00:02:25.068
- Basically everything running our modern lives goodbye.
- 00:02:25.068 --> 00:02:28.504
- Thankfully, babbage made a full recovery.
- 00:02:28.605 --> 00:02:31.140
- He continued his education at homewood academy, middlesex,
- 00:02:31.140 --> 00:02:33.810
- Where he became completely enamored with the library.
- 00:02:33.810 --> 00:02:37.280
- Like, almost as much as i love star wars, which is, like,
- 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:41.050
- A lot.
- 00:02:41.050 --> 00:02:42.385
- Anyway, it was there at the library that he became obsessed
- 00:02:42.385 --> 00:02:44.787
- With mathematics.
- 00:02:44.787 --> 00:02:48.224
- - 90, 95, 100.
- 00:02:48.658 --> 00:02:54.697
- - during that time, he also visited merlin's magical museum.
- 00:02:55.932 --> 00:02:59.002
- - it's mechanical museum.
- 00:02:59.002 --> 00:03:00.436
- - oh it's mechanical museum?
- 00:03:00.436 --> 00:03:02.171
- - yep.
- 00:03:02.171 --> 00:03:02.839
- - so not like the wizard?
- 00:03:02.839 --> 00:03:04.607
- Well, to be fair, at the time, this might as well have been
- 00:03:05.842 --> 00:03:09.245
- Magic.
- 00:03:09.245 --> 00:03:10.480
- At the museum, there were curious inventions and robots
- 00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:12.515
- That moved and scurried across the floor.
- 00:03:12.515 --> 00:03:14.484
- Now, this was way before wall-e or terminator,
- 00:03:14.484 --> 00:03:17.787
- So this was something that no one had seen before,
- 00:03:17.787 --> 00:03:20.189
- And it blew little babbage's mind.
- 00:03:20.189 --> 00:03:24.427
- It was the first time that he was introduced to the
- 00:03:24.527 --> 00:03:26.729
- Possibilities of what a machine could do.
- 00:03:26.729 --> 00:03:29.132
- He saw a world where machines wouldn't just live outdoors,
- 00:03:29.132 --> 00:03:32.702
- Powering, like, ships and trains,
- 00:03:32.702 --> 00:03:34.304
- But where they could come inside and assist man in common
- 00:03:34.304 --> 00:03:37.674
- Everyday tasks.
- 00:03:37.674 --> 00:03:38.808
- Kind of like a c-3po or r2-d2.
- 00:03:38.808 --> 00:03:42.578
- It opened his eyes to the future,
- 00:03:42.578 --> 00:03:44.314
- Thus setting babbage on his path toward changing modern history.
- 00:03:44.314 --> 00:03:48.851
- At the age of 20, babbage came right here to the trinity
- 00:03:50.019 --> 00:03:53.056
- College in cambridge, where his love of math sent him to the top
- 00:03:53.056 --> 00:03:55.925
- Of his class and became good friends with the outstanding
- 00:03:55.925 --> 00:03:59.095
- Astronomer, john herschel, who, like babbage,
- 00:03:59.095 --> 00:04:01.531
- Was a devout christian.
- 00:04:01.531 --> 00:04:02.699
- Babbage's friends were in a class of their own.
- 00:04:02.699 --> 00:04:05.868
- John herschel would eventually go on to astronomical fame,
- 00:04:05.868 --> 00:04:08.838
- Cataloging the southern hemisphere's night sky,
- 00:04:08.838 --> 00:04:11.507
- Naming seven of saturn's moons, and even coining that little
- 00:04:11.507 --> 00:04:15.411
- Term you may have heard of, photography.
- 00:04:15.411 --> 00:04:18.147
- Babbage spent his spare time poring over any mathematical
- 00:04:19.349 --> 00:04:22.251
- Books he could get his hands on.
- 00:04:22.251 --> 00:04:23.453
- He even studied writings from france and germany,
- 00:04:23.453 --> 00:04:25.988
- Which was a serious no, no.
- 00:04:25.988 --> 00:04:28.024
- Unfortunately, studying math from other countries,
- 00:04:28.024 --> 00:04:31.227
- Especially rival countries, was considered unpatriotic.
- 00:04:31.227 --> 00:04:36.032
- When babbage tried to discuss mathematics with his lecturers,
- 00:04:36.132 --> 00:04:38.935
- He was shocked that they were blatantly ignoring the latest
- 00:04:38.935 --> 00:04:42.405
- Developments in math throughout europe.
- 00:04:42.405 --> 00:04:44.073
- - the french and the germans agree,
- 00:04:44.073 --> 00:04:46.642
- Every non-constant single variable polynomial with a
- 00:04:46.642 --> 00:04:51.948
- Complex coefficient has at least one complex root.
- 00:04:51.948 --> 00:04:56.719
- This is a fundamental theory of algebra.
- 00:04:56.719 --> 00:05:00.356
- - and where did you learn this theorem?
- 00:05:00.356 --> 00:05:03.693
- - the french and the germans, of course.
- 00:05:03.693 --> 00:05:06.396
- Come on, boys, keep up.
- 00:05:06.996 --> 00:05:08.731
- - you're studying french and german?
- 00:05:08.731 --> 00:05:11.401
- - oui, oui.
- 00:05:11.401 --> 00:05:14.036
- - babbage had to take his study into his own hands.
- 00:05:15.171 --> 00:05:17.473
- So i guess in the same way us millennials will watch youtube
- 00:05:17.473 --> 00:05:20.810
- Videos on how to play guitar and load the dishwasher,
- 00:05:20.810 --> 00:05:23.980
- Babbage drove headfirst into calculus, trigonometry,
- 00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:28.684
- Pythagorean theorem, and a whole bunch of other gibberish math
- 00:05:28.684 --> 00:05:32.021
- Words.
- 00:05:32.021 --> 00:05:33.489
- Interestingly, the deeper babbage got into math and the
- 00:05:33.589 --> 00:05:36.159
- Natural wonders of the universe, the more he was convinced that
- 00:05:36.159 --> 00:05:39.095
- There was a higher power with higher governing laws.
- 00:05:39.095 --> 00:05:41.864
- Something, or perhaps someone setting in motion the laws like
- 00:05:41.864 --> 00:05:47.270
- Universe.
- 00:05:47.270 --> 00:05:48.337
- Being the curious scientist he was,
- 00:05:48.337 --> 00:05:50.606
- He even created a club here at cambridge called the ghost club.
- 00:05:50.606 --> 00:05:54.744
- And it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like.
- 00:05:54.844 --> 00:05:57.413
- It was basically the 1800s version of ghostbusters.
- 00:05:57.413 --> 00:06:00.750
- It's actually still a thing.
- 00:06:00.750 --> 00:06:02.685
- Members today study paranormal phenomena, expose the fake,
- 00:06:02.685 --> 00:06:06.489
- And investigate the unexplainable.
- 00:06:06.489 --> 00:06:09.058
- Oh.
- 00:06:09.058 --> 00:06:10.927
- Babbage believed no matter how much we thought we knew,
- 00:06:10.927 --> 00:06:13.963
- There was no way we could know all the answers about the
- 00:06:13.963 --> 00:06:16.599
- Universe and especially about the supernatural.
- 00:06:16.599 --> 00:06:18.968
- - we must not measure the credibility or incredibility of
- 00:06:18.968 --> 00:06:22.472
- An event through the narrow sphere of our own experience,
- 00:06:22.472 --> 00:06:26.042
- Nor forget that there is a divine energy which overrides
- 00:06:26.042 --> 00:06:31.514
- What we familiarly call the laws of nature.
- 00:06:31.514 --> 00:06:35.918
- - basically, what he was saying is there's things we can't
- 00:06:35.918 --> 00:06:38.588
- Explain, and we should be okay with that.
- 00:06:38.588 --> 00:06:40.356
- And perhaps god was behind all the science.
- 00:06:40.356 --> 00:06:45.495
- After college, his interest in christianity had grown strong
- 00:06:46.729 --> 00:06:49.632
- Enough that he decided to try to become a minister.
- 00:06:49.632 --> 00:06:52.301
- So he put out his applications and they all came back with a
- 00:06:52.301 --> 00:06:54.971
- Resounding no.
- 00:06:54.971 --> 00:06:57.273
- Unfortunately, the church leaders took too much notice of
- 00:06:57.273 --> 00:07:00.409
- Babbage's unjustified reputation as an unpatriotic englishman,
- 00:07:00.409 --> 00:07:05.047
- And his applications were rejected.
- 00:07:05.915 --> 00:07:10.353
- They were like, yeah.
- 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:11.988
- You studied french and german math.
- 00:07:11.988 --> 00:07:13.956
- You might be a dirty, unpatriotic spy.
- 00:07:13.956 --> 00:07:16.259
- No, thanks.
- 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:17.393
- But the rejection didn't stifle his faith.
- 00:07:17.393 --> 00:07:20.696
- He would go on to write many published works that future
- 00:07:20.696 --> 00:07:23.766
- Christian leaders would use to defend creationism and the idea
- 00:07:23.766 --> 00:07:26.869
- Of a supreme being.
- 00:07:26.869 --> 00:07:28.538
- He defended his belief in god in science by writing many
- 00:07:28.538 --> 00:07:31.741
- Articles.
- 00:07:31.741 --> 00:07:33.109
- One of them would even appear in a popular journal called on the
- 00:07:33.109 --> 00:07:35.912
- Power, wisdom, and goodness of god, as manifest in creation.
- 00:07:35.912 --> 00:07:40.182
- And get this, it wasn't published by the church,
- 00:07:40.182 --> 00:07:44.153
- But actually published and funded by the royal society,
- 00:07:44.153 --> 00:07:48.524
- The leading scientific community in the world.
- 00:07:48.524 --> 00:07:51.460
- Today, this is unheard of.
- 00:07:52.094 --> 00:07:54.263
- In science, in faith, no longer really get along.
- 00:07:54.263 --> 00:07:58.000
- It seems that science is actually trying to prove that
- 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:02.371
- There isn't a god.
- 00:08:02.371 --> 00:08:03.906
- And unfortunately, faith is no longer welcome to participate in
- 00:08:03.906 --> 00:08:08.811
- Any scientific discussion.
- 00:08:08.811 --> 00:08:11.314
- A biographer once said.
- 00:08:11.314 --> 00:08:12.682
- - babbage believed that the
- 00:08:12.682 --> 00:08:14.317
- Scientific method pursued to the max was entirely able to reveal
- 00:08:14.317 --> 00:08:18.588
- The handiwork of god.
- 00:08:18.588 --> 00:08:19.989
- - and that's exactly what happened.
- 00:08:19.989 --> 00:08:21.424
- After babbage's rejection from the church,
- 00:08:21.424 --> 00:08:23.826
- He made it his mission to prove that god existed within the
- 00:08:23.826 --> 00:08:27.897
- World of science, and that a divine order could be found
- 00:08:27.897 --> 00:08:31.467
- Specifically within mathematics.
- 00:08:31.467 --> 00:08:34.670
- Thanks to his rejection by the church.
- 00:08:35.571 --> 00:08:37.373
- Science became his greatest pulpit.
- 00:08:37.373 --> 00:08:40.309
- - a minister of mathematics.
- 00:08:40.977 --> 00:08:45.047
- - babbage became one of the world's leading mathematicians
- 00:08:46.282 --> 00:08:48.784
- And a professor here at cambridge university.
- 00:08:48.784 --> 00:08:50.653
- He quickly rose through the ranks and would eventually hold
- 00:08:50.653 --> 00:08:54.056
- The same position here at cambridge that geniuses like
- 00:08:54.056 --> 00:08:57.026
- Isaac newton, and more recently, stephen hawking, held.
- 00:08:57.026 --> 00:09:01.564
- He then became a lecturer at the royal institution,
- 00:09:02.632 --> 00:09:05.234
- Where he taught.
- 00:09:05.234 --> 00:09:06.235
- Not math, surprisingly, but astronomy.
- 00:09:06.235 --> 00:09:09.305
- But his head was less in the classroom and more on working
- 00:09:09.305 --> 00:09:12.108
- With his hands, inventing stuff.
- 00:09:12.108 --> 00:09:14.610
- Wherever he saw a problem, he figured there had to be a
- 00:09:15.778 --> 00:09:18.014
- Solution.
- 00:09:18.014 --> 00:09:18.948
- Along with numerous other discoveries.
- 00:09:18.948 --> 00:09:20.916
- He came up with ways to make factories more effective,
- 00:09:20.916 --> 00:09:23.519
- Trains avoid calculations, and how to make books more
- 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:26.956
- Affordable.
- 00:09:26.956 --> 00:09:28.290
- Unfortunately, the one problem he could never find a solution
- 00:09:28.290 --> 00:09:31.327
- To, and one that plagued him his entire life,
- 00:09:31.327 --> 00:09:33.362
- Is what he called public nuisances.
- 00:09:33.362 --> 00:09:36.565
- You see, london back in the day, was a pretty busy place, right?
- 00:09:36.565 --> 00:09:39.168
- There were street musicians and drunks and children running wild
- 00:09:39.168 --> 00:09:42.438
- In the streets.
- 00:09:42.438 --> 00:09:43.773
- He saw this as an interruption to his brainstorming sessions.
- 00:09:43.773 --> 00:09:46.742
- Well, he definitely needs his peace and quiet,
- 00:09:46.742 --> 00:09:49.445
- Because he was right in the middle of developing his
- 00:09:49.445 --> 00:09:52.281
- Greatest breakthrough — a calculating machine.
- 00:09:52.281 --> 00:09:57.520
- Now, this was 200 years ago.
- 00:09:58.187 --> 00:10:00.756
- They didn't even have electricity.
- 00:10:00.756 --> 00:10:02.458
- Everything was either powered by a horse or a steam engine,
- 00:10:02.458 --> 00:10:05.327
- A brand new invention that had just hit the market.
- 00:10:05.327 --> 00:10:07.997
- Remember, this was the dawn of the industrial age.
- 00:10:07.997 --> 00:10:10.833
- Let's go ahead.
- 00:10:10.833 --> 00:10:12.334
- For scientists, mathematical tables were still being
- 00:10:13.469 --> 00:10:16.338
- Calculated by hand and were not very accurate,
- 00:10:16.338 --> 00:10:19.108
- Which led to massive amounts of human error.
- 00:10:19.108 --> 00:10:21.477
- Can you imagine adding up the price of a large walmart cart
- 00:10:21.477 --> 00:10:24.613
- Full of stuff by hand, or figuring out complex aviation
- 00:10:24.613 --> 00:10:28.250
- Routes on paper?
- 00:10:28.250 --> 00:10:29.452
- I mean, that's an insane amount of brainpower in math.
- 00:10:29.452 --> 00:10:33.155
- Some of it, pretty dangerous.
- 00:10:33.155 --> 00:10:35.825
- Obviously mistakes were common.
- 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:37.827
- There was miscalculation in both the transcription and the
- 00:10:37.827 --> 00:10:40.730
- Calculation, and babbage felt like this added up to way too
- 00:10:40.730 --> 00:10:43.165
- Many inaccuracies.
- 00:10:43.165 --> 00:10:44.533
- So he pulled a babbage and came up with a solution,
- 00:10:44.533 --> 00:10:47.470
- The difference engine, a mechanical calculator.
- 00:10:47.470 --> 00:10:52.508
- After a few years of kicking around this crazy idea in his
- 00:10:53.743 --> 00:10:56.312
- Head, he finally pitched the project to the royal society in
- 00:10:56.312 --> 00:10:59.081
- London.
- 00:10:59.081 --> 00:11:00.182
- - and that's what i call the difference engine.
- 00:11:00.182 --> 00:11:04.920
- - i like it.
- 00:11:05.321 --> 00:11:06.255
- - i like it a lot.
- 00:11:06.255 --> 00:11:07.723
- - you got a deal.
- 00:11:07.723 --> 00:11:09.525
- Yeah.
- 00:11:09.825 --> 00:11:10.760
- It's a good handshake you got there.
- 00:11:10.760 --> 00:11:11.994
- - well, the royal society loved his idea and gave it their
- 00:11:11.994 --> 00:11:15.798
- Enthusiastic support.
- 00:11:15.798 --> 00:11:17.299
- They then recommended a financial investment to
- 00:11:17.299 --> 00:11:19.135
- England's prime minister, sir robert peel.
- 00:11:19.135 --> 00:11:22.404
- London in the 1800s was basically the silicon valley of
- 00:11:22.505 --> 00:11:25.441
- The day.
- 00:11:25.441 --> 00:11:26.742
- It seemed like a new invention or startup was changing the
- 00:11:26.742 --> 00:11:28.377
- World, nearly every week.
- 00:11:28.377 --> 00:11:30.279
- London was at the time the place to be if you had a new
- 00:11:31.413 --> 00:11:34.250
- Technology and were looking for funding.
- 00:11:34.250 --> 00:11:36.252
- And boy, were there some groundbreaking inventions.
- 00:11:36.252 --> 00:11:39.855
- Prime minister peel had the sole power to fund babbage's
- 00:11:39.955 --> 00:11:43.092
- Calculation machine.
- 00:11:43.092 --> 00:11:44.393
- He was the guy who wrote all the checks on behalf of england.
- 00:11:44.393 --> 00:11:47.563
- - the government of england is so proud to invest in the
- 00:11:47.563 --> 00:11:51.534
- Ingenuity of its people with such great inventions.
- 00:11:51.534 --> 00:11:55.271
- - stamps.
- 00:11:55.271 --> 00:11:56.338
- Postage stamps.
- 00:11:56.338 --> 00:11:57.907
- You can't mail a letter without them.
- 00:11:57.907 --> 00:12:00.075
- - bicycle pedals.
- 00:12:00.075 --> 00:12:01.510
- It took me five years, but i did it.
- 00:12:01.510 --> 00:12:03.879
- What am i going to do with all that money?
- 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:05.681
- Invent more bicycle pedals.
- 00:12:05.681 --> 00:12:07.082
- That's what i'm going to do.
- 00:12:07.082 --> 00:12:08.417
- - i invented cement.
- 00:12:08.951 --> 00:12:10.085
- It's basically road pudding.
- 00:12:10.085 --> 00:12:13.355
- And that lady with the bicycles?
- 00:12:14.056 --> 00:12:15.457
- Yeah.
- 00:12:15.457 --> 00:12:16.258
- She's got to ride on something.
- 00:12:16.258 --> 00:12:17.893
- - in all seriousness, there was some really big innovation
- 00:12:17.993 --> 00:12:20.162
- Happening at the time.
- 00:12:20.162 --> 00:12:21.397
- Investors were looking to fund the next big adventure.
- 00:12:21.397 --> 00:12:23.632
- Inventors just like charles babbage.
- 00:12:23.632 --> 00:12:26.569
- With the royal society's favorable report,
- 00:12:26.669 --> 00:12:28.838
- Babbage went after the biggest investor of them all,
- 00:12:28.838 --> 00:12:31.540
- The government.
- 00:12:31.540 --> 00:12:33.142
- - good luck with your steam powered math engine.
- 00:12:33.142 --> 00:12:37.246
- Smile for the birdie.
- 00:12:37.813 --> 00:12:39.715
- - the prime minister committed to help fund babbage's new wild
- 00:12:39.815 --> 00:12:42.918
- Idea of a difference engine.
- 00:12:42.918 --> 00:12:44.954
- Okay, so the difference engine.
- 00:12:44.954 --> 00:12:47.790
- It was basically the world's first calculator.
- 00:12:47.790 --> 00:12:50.693
- It could be set up to compute any value up to a certain amount
- 00:12:50.693 --> 00:12:53.762
- Of digits using the metric of differences.
- 00:12:53.762 --> 00:12:56.232
- It then automatically stepped to the value and printed the
- 00:12:56.232 --> 00:12:59.134
- Results.
- 00:12:59.134 --> 00:13:00.236
- Taking human error sweetly out of the equation.
- 00:13:00.236 --> 00:13:02.805
- (music playing)
- 00:13:02.805 --> 00:13:10.713
- Even though babbage had the money to fund his project,
- 00:13:10.713 --> 00:13:12.748
- It took a little while to get his invention up and running.
- 00:13:12.748 --> 00:13:15.417
- In fact, it's here at the science museum in london that
- 00:13:15.417 --> 00:13:18.821
- You can see all of his prototypes and the countless
- 00:13:18.821 --> 00:13:22.024
- Notebooks that he meticulously filled during the process.
- 00:13:22.024 --> 00:13:24.526
- Babbage was all about the research.
- 00:13:24.526 --> 00:13:27.763
- Every idea, fully explored, every option taken to account.
- 00:13:27.763 --> 00:13:31.433
- As long as he had the money, he was going to keep researching.
- 00:13:31.433 --> 00:13:34.470
- You see, he was great when it came to research and
- 00:13:34.470 --> 00:13:37.806
- Experimentation.
- 00:13:37.806 --> 00:13:38.941
- But just like some of the greatest inventors before
- 00:13:38.941 --> 00:13:41.076
- Babbage, he was terrible at managing his time and money.
- 00:13:41.076 --> 00:13:46.448
- - give me an engineer.
- 00:13:47.016 --> 00:13:48.017
- (music playing)
- 00:13:48.017 --> 00:13:51.253
- Give me three engineers.
- 00:13:51.253 --> 00:13:53.455
- Give me 12 engineers.
- 00:13:54.023 --> 00:13:55.324
- - it ended up taking a little more time than he originally
- 00:13:55.324 --> 00:13:58.127
- Planned.
- 00:13:58.127 --> 00:13:59.495
- In fact, it took way longer to design and build the difference
- 00:13:59.495 --> 00:14:02.331
- Engine.
- 00:14:02.331 --> 00:14:03.132
- - we don't have any more money.
- 00:14:03.132 --> 00:14:04.099
- We can't hire anyone else.
- 00:14:04.099 --> 00:14:05.601
- You've burned through all the cash.
- 00:14:05.601 --> 00:14:07.836
- - what do you do around here?
- 00:14:07.836 --> 00:14:09.672
- - i'm your accountant, sir.
- 00:14:09.672 --> 00:14:11.573
- - i don't need accountants, i need engineers.
- 00:14:11.573 --> 00:14:14.109
- You're fired.
- 00:14:14.109 --> 00:14:16.812
- Hire one more engineer, and more cookies.
- 00:14:17.680 --> 00:14:23.319
- - this was a very complex machine.
- 00:14:24.086 --> 00:14:26.388
- They called for the creation of special tools and a bunch of
- 00:14:26.388 --> 00:14:29.258
- Skilled engineers.
- 00:14:29.258 --> 00:14:30.492
- But just like some of the greatest computer companies
- 00:14:30.492 --> 00:14:32.294
- After babbage, like microsoft, amazon, apple,
- 00:14:32.294 --> 00:14:35.364
- They all started in a garage.
- 00:14:35.364 --> 00:14:37.733
- - no, that's not right.
- 00:14:37.733 --> 00:14:38.968
- - it's true.
- 00:14:38.968 --> 00:14:40.135
- Babbage started his computer company in a garage.
- 00:14:40.135 --> 00:14:42.838
- Okay, not really in the garage, per se.
- 00:14:42.838 --> 00:14:45.874
- He actually had a nice garage down at the workshop,
- 00:14:45.874 --> 00:14:47.910
- Big enough.
- 00:14:47.910 --> 00:14:48.877
- This computer he was creating was huge.
- 00:14:48.877 --> 00:14:51.547
- In 1832, a prototype of a small difference engine had been
- 00:14:51.547 --> 00:14:56.051
- Successfully completed.
- 00:14:56.051 --> 00:14:57.219
- You can see it here at the science museum in london.
- 00:14:57.219 --> 00:15:00.222
- The difference engine was a brilliant but crude first step
- 00:15:00.222 --> 00:15:03.559
- Into computing machines.
- 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:04.927
- It would be babbage's next idea that would truly lay the
- 00:15:04.927 --> 00:15:08.364
- Groundwork for our computers today.
- 00:15:08.364 --> 00:15:09.565
- He called it the analytical engine.
- 00:15:09.565 --> 00:15:13.402
- This machine can perform the four fundamental functions of
- 00:15:14.636 --> 00:15:17.606
- Arithmetic, but it would be way more than just a calculator.
- 00:15:17.606 --> 00:15:20.743
- It would act as a computer.
- 00:15:20.743 --> 00:15:22.711
- It would be able to process decisions and logical functions
- 00:15:22.711 --> 00:15:25.814
- And would actually have its own internal memory.
- 00:15:25.814 --> 00:15:28.917
- Exactly like our computers today.
- 00:15:28.917 --> 00:15:31.220
- But of course, it didn't look like anything we have today.
- 00:15:31.220 --> 00:15:34.456
- This was an engine, like a train.
- 00:15:34.456 --> 00:15:38.494
- To talk a little bit more about babbage's idea of a mechanical
- 00:15:39.795 --> 00:15:42.398
- Computer, we need to speak with doctor tilly blythe,
- 00:15:42.398 --> 00:15:45.234
- The principal curator at the science museum in london.
- 00:15:45.234 --> 00:15:48.137
- So you have a ton of babbage's machines here.
- 00:15:48.137 --> 00:15:50.272
- What exactly do you have?
- 00:15:50.272 --> 00:15:51.673
- - we really have an amazing collection of his machines.
- 00:15:51.774 --> 00:15:54.410
- So we have the difference engine number one,
- 00:15:54.410 --> 00:15:56.645
- Which was just the small fragment that he developed to
- 00:15:56.645 --> 00:15:59.381
- Show people his ideas.
- 00:15:59.381 --> 00:16:00.649
- Then we have an element called the mill,
- 00:16:00.649 --> 00:16:03.419
- Which is part of the analytical engine,
- 00:16:03.419 --> 00:16:05.554
- Which is the machine that we might think of as more of a
- 00:16:05.554 --> 00:16:08.090
- Computer.
- 00:16:08.090 --> 00:16:09.458
- - sure.
- 00:16:09.458 --> 00:16:10.759
- - and then we also have the difference engine number two,
- 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:13.362
- Which is a machine that we built, at the science museum,
- 00:16:13.362 --> 00:16:16.799
- Following the specifications that babbage actually created in
- 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:20.469
- His own designs.
- 00:16:20.469 --> 00:16:21.937
- - if you could explain to us the main differences between the
- 00:16:21.937 --> 00:16:24.873
- Difference engine and the analytical engine?
- 00:16:24.873 --> 00:16:26.842
- - that's a really good question, because it goes right to the
- 00:16:26.842 --> 00:16:29.611
- Heart of what babbage did for all of us.
- 00:16:29.611 --> 00:16:32.247
- So the difference engine is effectively like a calculator.
- 00:16:32.247 --> 00:16:37.386
- That's all it is.
- 00:16:37.386 --> 00:16:38.720
- It does a series of calculations on polynomial equations using
- 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:43.425
- Only addition.
- 00:16:43.425 --> 00:16:44.793
- So it's a very clever machine and it can effectively work out
- 00:16:44.793 --> 00:16:47.596
- Equations using just addition, which is an incredible thing.
- 00:16:47.596 --> 00:16:52.501
- But then by the 1830s, he moved on to this different type of
- 00:16:52.501 --> 00:16:57.139
- Engine, the analytical engine.
- 00:16:57.139 --> 00:16:59.408
- And it's the analytical engine that really makes a massive
- 00:16:59.408 --> 00:17:02.144
- Intellectual leap from the idea of a calculator to the idea of a
- 00:17:02.144 --> 00:17:07.583
- Computer.
- 00:17:07.583 --> 00:17:08.917
- And it had some of the core components of what we would now
- 00:17:08.917 --> 00:17:11.286
- Think of as a computer.
- 00:17:11.286 --> 00:17:12.921
- So it had the mill, which is effectively like the processor
- 00:17:12.921 --> 00:17:18.227
- That we would get in the computer today.
- 00:17:18.227 --> 00:17:19.828
- And then it had the store, which is like the memory of a
- 00:17:19.828 --> 00:17:23.232
- Computer.
- 00:17:23.232 --> 00:17:24.433
- So those are kind of key architectural features that we
- 00:17:24.433 --> 00:17:26.635
- Would think of when we see a computer.
- 00:17:26.635 --> 00:17:28.337
- - can you put into context how revolutionary the idea of a
- 00:17:28.337 --> 00:17:32.274
- Mechanical calculator was?
- 00:17:32.274 --> 00:17:34.243
- - again, if you think about what babbage was referencing,
- 00:17:34.243 --> 00:17:37.412
- He was looking at these incredible steam engines that
- 00:17:37.412 --> 00:17:39.882
- Had been built during the industrial revolution.
- 00:17:39.882 --> 00:17:42.951
- Babbage sees this and says, we could put this into thought.
- 00:17:42.951 --> 00:17:48.257
- We could put this power into thought,
- 00:17:48.257 --> 00:17:50.392
- Which is an incredible intellectual leap,
- 00:17:50.392 --> 00:17:52.828
- If you think about it.
- 00:17:52.828 --> 00:17:54.029
- - so talk about the mechanics of the engine itself.
- 00:17:54.029 --> 00:17:57.032
- - so the two engines would have been quite different.
- 00:17:57.032 --> 00:17:59.735
- But the analytical engine, would have been the size of a room,
- 00:17:59.735 --> 00:18:05.507
- Or even bigger, depending on how big you made the store,
- 00:18:05.507 --> 00:18:10.345
- The memory for the machine.
- 00:18:10.345 --> 00:18:11.914
- Unlike the difference engine, which was going to be powered by
- 00:18:11.914 --> 00:18:14.883
- A human turning handle, the analytical engine would have
- 00:18:14.883 --> 00:18:19.621
- Been powered by steam.
- 00:18:19.621 --> 00:18:20.822
- So again, babbage had seen these wonderful machines,
- 00:18:20.822 --> 00:18:23.759
- Engines that were producing all sorts of goods.
- 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:27.129
- And he used ideas that he'd seen in other machines.
- 00:18:27.129 --> 00:18:31.633
- So he had seen something called the jacquard loom,
- 00:18:31.633 --> 00:18:34.469
- Which is a machine that used punch cards for creating
- 00:18:34.469 --> 00:18:38.140
- Beautiful woven textiles.
- 00:18:38.140 --> 00:18:40.075
- And the cards with the holes would actually describe the
- 00:18:40.075 --> 00:18:43.779
- Pattern that ended up in the textiles.
- 00:18:43.779 --> 00:18:45.547
- - so like an algorithm?
- 00:18:45.547 --> 00:18:46.481
- - exactly.
- 00:18:46.481 --> 00:18:47.249
- Just like an algorithm.
- 00:18:47.249 --> 00:18:48.617
- And he saw that and thought, i can use this and apply it to my
- 00:18:48.617 --> 00:18:52.221
- Analytical engine.
- 00:18:52.221 --> 00:18:53.722
- So he would take punch cards and he would use those cards to
- 00:18:53.722 --> 00:18:57.759
- Describe where the numbers were that they should be worked on,
- 00:18:57.759 --> 00:19:02.364
- Where they could be found, where they would be stored in the
- 00:19:02.364 --> 00:19:05.434
- Machine, but also which numbers to actually work on.
- 00:19:05.434 --> 00:19:08.170
- - so where do you think the world would be without charles
- 00:19:08.170 --> 00:19:10.906
- Babbage?
- 00:19:10.906 --> 00:19:12.040
- - it's a very interesting question,
- 00:19:12.874 --> 00:19:14.643
- Because it was 100 years later that alan turing started to
- 00:19:14.643 --> 00:19:18.580
- Build digital electronic machines.
- 00:19:18.580 --> 00:19:20.515
- But i like to think that babbage and his accomplice actually were
- 00:19:20.515 --> 00:19:26.955
- Really kind of computer visionaries.
- 00:19:26.955 --> 00:19:28.824
- They enabled people to start to think about the capability of a
- 00:19:28.824 --> 00:19:35.330
- Machine and how we might apply a machine not just to think about
- 00:19:35.330 --> 00:19:39.501
- Creating matter, but helping us to create minds.
- 00:19:39.501 --> 00:19:42.704
- So we've really jumped from thing to thought.
- 00:19:42.704 --> 00:19:45.440
- And that's an incredible leap.
- 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:48.477
- - isn't it crazy to think that babbage's machine was literally
- 00:19:48.577 --> 00:19:52.381
- A computer engine like a tesla?
- 00:19:52.381 --> 00:19:55.851
- Well, not really.
- 00:19:55.851 --> 00:19:57.486
- Although elon and babbage do have one thing in common.
- 00:19:57.486 --> 00:20:01.156
- They've both been accused of never turning a profit.
- 00:20:01.156 --> 00:20:03.458
- For elon, though, i mean, he's got his rocket ships and his
- 00:20:03.458 --> 00:20:07.129
- Flamethrowers, so he'll be fine.
- 00:20:07.129 --> 00:20:08.597
- But for babbage, well, he had to answer to his creditors,
- 00:20:08.597 --> 00:20:12.100
- The government of england.
- 00:20:12.100 --> 00:20:14.670
- - but i'm so close.
- 00:20:14.670 --> 00:20:16.305
- I'm one version away from a final product that.
- 00:20:17.372 --> 00:20:20.075
- - no.
- 00:20:20.075 --> 00:20:21.643
- You don't have a product at all.
- 00:20:21.643 --> 00:20:23.478
- Like, absolutely none.
- 00:20:23.478 --> 00:20:25.514
- Do you understand?
- 00:20:25.514 --> 00:20:28.116
- - it's all right here in my notebook.
- 00:20:28.984 --> 00:20:32.854
- - and that's the only place they exist.
- 00:20:33.755 --> 00:20:35.991
- In your notebooks.
- 00:20:35.991 --> 00:20:40.929
- - you see, babbage was a great idea guy,
- 00:20:41.863 --> 00:20:44.066
- But actually never built the machine he promised to the prime
- 00:20:44.066 --> 00:20:47.069
- Minister.
- 00:20:47.069 --> 00:20:48.136
- His brilliance got the best of him.
- 00:20:48.136 --> 00:20:49.971
- He was so deep in trying to perfect the technology,
- 00:20:49.971 --> 00:20:52.974
- But he kept having idea after idea on how to improve it.
- 00:20:52.974 --> 00:20:56.478
- He never got around to actually finishing any of his computing
- 00:20:56.478 --> 00:21:00.282
- Machines, which is probably the real reason why so many people
- 00:21:00.282 --> 00:21:03.752
- Have never heard of it.
- 00:21:03.752 --> 00:21:05.020
- It's not how you start, it's how you finish.
- 00:21:05.020 --> 00:21:07.923
- Not delivering on your investment will end up catching
- 00:21:08.023 --> 00:21:10.092
- Up to you.
- 00:21:10.092 --> 00:21:10.726
- And it did.
- 00:21:10.726 --> 00:21:12.127
- Babbage had been given a ton of money by the british government
- 00:21:12.127 --> 00:21:14.062
- To create his machine, and ended up not doing the work.
- 00:21:14.062 --> 00:21:17.132
- I mean, he did the work intellectually,
- 00:21:17.132 --> 00:21:19.368
- But not physically.
- 00:21:19.368 --> 00:21:20.802
- The government threatened to shut down funding because all
- 00:21:20.802 --> 00:21:23.505
- Babbage had to show for it was a bunch of notebooks filled with
- 00:21:23.505 --> 00:21:25.807
- Ideas and schematics.
- 00:21:25.807 --> 00:21:27.275
- Those notebooks, by the way, we'll come back to in a minute.
- 00:21:27.275 --> 00:21:31.380
- His goal was to keep his invention from becoming out of
- 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:34.282
- Sight, out of mind.
- 00:21:34.282 --> 00:21:35.517
- So he would host these lavish parties at his home.
- 00:21:35.517 --> 00:21:38.353
- For a guy who wanted to be a minister,
- 00:21:38.353 --> 00:21:40.622
- He sure did know how to party.
- 00:21:40.622 --> 00:21:42.457
- Some of the most famous names of the time showed up his social
- 00:21:42.457 --> 00:21:46.061
- Soirees, from lord byron to charles dickens.
- 00:21:46.061 --> 00:21:49.131
- No one who wanted to miss a babbage party.
- 00:21:49.131 --> 00:21:52.567
- The central attraction to his events would, of course,
- 00:21:53.735 --> 00:21:55.637
- Be his prototype difference engine.
- 00:21:55.637 --> 00:21:57.472
- And right next to that, robots.
- 00:21:57.472 --> 00:22:00.342
- Yeah, they had robots in the 1800s.
- 00:22:00.342 --> 00:22:04.146
- - everyone.
- 00:22:04.146 --> 00:22:07.115
- - whoa.
- 00:22:07.449 --> 00:22:15.791
- - after a speech about the future of technology and his new
- 00:22:16.992 --> 00:22:19.327
- Ideas, his captive audience would begin to hear all the
- 00:22:19.327 --> 00:22:22.931
- Possibilities of his newest computing machine.
- 00:22:22.931 --> 00:22:25.767
- - it can also skip the intervening cards,
- 00:22:25.767 --> 00:22:33.608
- Which causes the previously red cards to be processed again.
- 00:22:33.608 --> 00:22:45.954
- Are there any questions?
- 00:22:46.521 --> 00:22:48.323
- Yes, ma'am.
- 00:22:48.323 --> 00:22:49.925
- - can it play music or perhaps paint a picture?
- 00:22:49.925 --> 00:22:52.327
- Or could it send messages across the country via text?
- 00:22:52.327 --> 00:22:58.700
- - you see babbage's idea for the future of this analytical engine
- 00:22:59.968 --> 00:23:03.505
- Only had to do with math.
- 00:23:03.505 --> 00:23:05.307
- And that's really boring.
- 00:23:05.307 --> 00:23:07.309
- He saw the machine being able to handle complex math problems,
- 00:23:07.309 --> 00:23:10.912
- Plot graphs, and maybe, just maybe, sine and cosine,
- 00:23:10.912 --> 00:23:16.184
- Whatever that means.
- 00:23:16.184 --> 00:23:17.519
- And that's so not, in any way, shape or form the coolest way to
- 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:20.722
- Sell the future of your idea.
- 00:23:20.722 --> 00:23:22.123
- - surely the computer's more important than bike pedals.
- 00:23:22.123 --> 00:23:25.961
- - but there was one person fascinated by the analytical
- 00:23:25.961 --> 00:23:29.965
- Engine.
- 00:23:29.965 --> 00:23:31.032
- A beautiful young woman named ada lovelace.
- 00:23:31.032 --> 00:23:34.002
- - lovelace.
- 00:23:34.002 --> 00:23:35.437
- Ada lovelace.
- 00:23:35.437 --> 00:23:37.439
- Not the bomb girl, the mathematician.
- 00:23:37.539 --> 00:23:39.107
- - she was the daughter of the famous poet lord byron.
- 00:23:39.107 --> 00:23:42.644
- Ada lovelace threw herself into this new tech.
- 00:23:42.644 --> 00:23:45.747
- She would eventually go down in history as one of the very first
- 00:23:45.747 --> 00:23:49.584
- Software programmers ever.
- 00:23:49.584 --> 00:23:53.722
- Babbage and ada formed a great team.
- 00:23:54.589 --> 00:23:56.525
- While babbage saw the hardware of the future,
- 00:23:56.525 --> 00:23:58.660
- Lovelace saw the software.
- 00:23:58.660 --> 00:24:01.429
- - bill gates ain't got nothing on me.
- 00:24:01.530 --> 00:24:04.799
- I've programed it to scoop the litter box and put the cat back
- 00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:08.670
- On the toothpaste.
- 00:24:08.670 --> 00:24:09.938
- -uh-huh.
- 00:24:09.938 --> 00:24:11.172
- - very excited.
- 00:24:11.172 --> 00:24:12.240
- - oh, now, that's the litter box right there.
- 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:14.042
- Yes.
- 00:24:14.042 --> 00:24:15.410
- - she believed anything you can create, like music or artwork,
- 00:24:15.410 --> 00:24:18.213
- The computer could reproduce mechanically.
- 00:24:18.213 --> 00:24:21.082
- Really, lovelace saw the technology we have today,
- 00:24:21.082 --> 00:24:24.419
- Almost 200 years ago.
- 00:24:24.419 --> 00:24:26.154
- She could see the future of technology when others couldn't.
- 00:24:26.154 --> 00:24:29.991
- And just like all great tech ceos,
- 00:24:29.991 --> 00:24:32.227
- She was one heck of a salesperson.
- 00:24:32.227 --> 00:24:34.863
- - the analytical engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the
- 00:24:34.963 --> 00:24:38.366
- Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.
- 00:24:38.366 --> 00:24:40.402
- But the analytical engine might act upon other things besides
- 00:24:40.402 --> 00:24:46.508
- Numbers.
- 00:24:46.508 --> 00:24:48.076
- Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of
- 00:24:48.176 --> 00:24:52.213
- Pitch sounds and the science of harmonies and musical
- 00:24:52.213 --> 00:24:56.985
- Composition were susceptible to such expressions and
- 00:24:56.985 --> 00:25:01.489
- Adaptations.
- 00:25:01.489 --> 00:25:02.991
- Ladies and gentlemen, this is not just math.
- 00:25:02.991 --> 00:25:11.032
- This is art.
- 00:25:11.433 --> 00:25:12.734
- - but unfortunately, in 1842, at the height of their work,
- 00:25:12.734 --> 00:25:15.971
- The final government check was canceled,
- 00:25:15.971 --> 00:25:18.440
- And prime minister peel pulled the plug on the project
- 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:21.009
- Permanently.
- 00:25:21.009 --> 00:25:22.844
- - leave it to a man to ruin everything.
- 00:25:23.778 --> 00:25:28.383
- - too many years had passed without results.
- 00:25:29.351 --> 00:25:31.152
- After a heated meeting where babbage went off on the prime
- 00:25:31.152 --> 00:25:33.855
- Minister, he stormed out of the office and slammed the door on
- 00:25:33.855 --> 00:25:36.691
- The era of his calculating machines.
- 00:25:36.691 --> 00:25:38.627
- Once that happened, nearly all private investment dried up as
- 00:25:38.627 --> 00:25:42.697
- Well.
- 00:25:42.697 --> 00:25:44.332
- After years of hard work on what he believed to be the invention
- 00:25:44.432 --> 00:25:48.136
- Of all inventions, no one was interested anymore.
- 00:25:48.136 --> 00:25:51.906
- Over the next three decades, the world of science would begin to
- 00:25:51.906 --> 00:25:54.676
- Radically transform.
- 00:25:54.676 --> 00:25:56.144
- The darwinian revolution and rise of other anti-faith
- 00:25:56.144 --> 00:25:59.447
- Institutions would trample the biblical faith that babbage had
- 00:25:59.447 --> 00:26:02.917
- Built his entire life's work on.
- 00:26:02.917 --> 00:26:04.686
- This put a lot of pressure on the aging mathematician,
- 00:26:04.686 --> 00:26:07.989
- And many begin to argue that he should change his views on god
- 00:26:07.989 --> 00:26:10.825
- And science to accept theories like social darwinism and
- 00:26:10.825 --> 00:26:14.295
- Evolution.
- 00:26:14.295 --> 00:26:15.463
- But babbage held fast and was secure in his faith.
- 00:26:15.463 --> 00:26:18.600
- - no amount of pressure or argument will ever allow me to
- 00:26:19.801 --> 00:26:27.042
- Put away my faith in god.
- 00:26:27.042 --> 00:26:30.845
- God is the greatest mathematician.
- 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:37.085
- - despite pressure to believe otherwise,
- 00:26:37.986 --> 00:26:39.487
- Babbage believed science could prove god's existence.
- 00:26:39.487 --> 00:26:42.791
- - and even in man's best efforts,
- 00:26:43.525 --> 00:26:48.363
- We will never fully comprehend his perfection.
- 00:26:49.364 --> 00:26:54.369
- - charles babbage died quietly on october 18th, 1871,
- 00:26:55.503 --> 00:26:59.507
- Leaving behind three children, a wife,
- 00:26:59.507 --> 00:27:01.810
- And an incomplete lifelong project.
- 00:27:01.810 --> 00:27:05.013
- Now that could have been the end of the story,
- 00:27:05.113 --> 00:27:07.048
- We could still be adding up numbers and long rows of paper
- 00:27:07.048 --> 00:27:09.651
- And sending telegrams instead of emails.
- 00:27:09.651 --> 00:27:11.786
- But thank god that wasn't the end.
- 00:27:11.786 --> 00:27:14.122
- (music playing)
- 00:27:14.122 --> 00:27:19.861
- Fast forward 66 years, and this difference engine was literally
- 00:27:19.861 --> 00:27:23.331
- Sitting in the archives of the science museum in london
- 00:27:23.331 --> 00:27:26.134
- Collecting dust.
- 00:27:26.134 --> 00:27:27.502
- But thanks to a few top secret experiments leading up to world
- 00:27:27.502 --> 00:27:30.538
- War 2, a brand new generation of scientists stumbled upon his
- 00:27:30.538 --> 00:27:34.642
- Writings.
- 00:27:34.642 --> 00:27:35.510
- - we found it.
- 00:27:35.510 --> 00:27:37.746
- - when the scientists began analyzing babbage's notebooks,
- 00:27:37.846 --> 00:27:40.315
- They literally found the solution to their computing
- 00:27:40.315 --> 00:27:43.151
- Problems.
- 00:27:43.151 --> 00:27:44.452
- The principles of computer storage and memory that babbage
- 00:27:44.452 --> 00:27:46.721
- Had dreamed up were still sound.
- 00:27:46.721 --> 00:27:48.723
- - hey guys, what's this?
- 00:27:49.290 --> 00:27:51.593
- - not only did babbage set the stage for today's computer
- 00:27:51.593 --> 00:27:54.696
- Hardware, he also conceived the idea of writing software
- 00:27:54.696 --> 00:27:57.799
- Programs.
- 00:27:57.799 --> 00:27:59.134
- In fact, babbage's century old idea of writing programs for his
- 00:27:59.134 --> 00:28:02.771
- Machine still closely resembles how we program our computers to
- 00:28:02.771 --> 00:28:07.242
- This very day.
- 00:28:07.242 --> 00:28:09.577
- Charles babbage stood shoulder to shoulder with the leading
- 00:28:09.677 --> 00:28:12.547
- Scientists of britain.
- 00:28:12.547 --> 00:28:13.848
- Although he was a principal founder of the royal
- 00:28:13.848 --> 00:28:16.451
- Astronomical society and the british association for the
- 00:28:16.451 --> 00:28:19.654
- Advancement of science, if it were up to him,
- 00:28:19.654 --> 00:28:22.090
- He'd probably rather be known by how his friends described him.
- 00:28:22.090 --> 00:28:26.594
- Babbage's brilliant mind, half finished inventions and writings
- 00:28:26.694 --> 00:28:29.597
- Have impacted the world in undeniable ways.
- 00:28:29.597 --> 00:28:32.901
- He was able to bridge the gap between science and faith in
- 00:28:32.901 --> 00:28:36.070
- Spite of tremendous social and intellectual changes.
- 00:28:36.070 --> 00:28:39.140
- Today, when you sit down at your computer, pick up your phone,
- 00:28:39.140 --> 00:28:42.744
- I think it's important to remember how we got here.
- 00:28:42.744 --> 00:28:45.647
- It was all thanks to a failed minister that made science his
- 00:28:45.647 --> 00:28:49.284
- Ministry.
- 00:28:49.284 --> 00:28:51.286
- Maybe babbage was never meant to preach in the pulpit,
- 00:28:51.386 --> 00:28:53.721
- But his beliefs drove him to see the world in a way that took us
- 00:28:53.721 --> 00:28:57.492
- Out of the old world and into the modern world.
- 00:28:57.492 --> 00:29:01.830
- And i think that's what makes his name worth remembering.
- 00:29:01.830 --> 00:29:05.200
- Charles babbage, the true father of the modern computer.
- 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:05.200