A Mechanical Miracle

The father of computing believed his machine held the key to some of life’s greatest mysteries.

In or soon after 1833

King William IV 1830-1837

Introduction

One day, Charles Babbage was in his drawing-room showing off his calculating machine to two friends from Ireland, Dr Lloyd and Dr Robinson. He showed them how the machine automatically flipped back and forth between multiple programs ad infinitum, and remarked that there may be a parallel with the laws governing Evolution. The spark in the eyes of his two visitors made him even bolder.

by Charles Babbage 1791-1871

Encouraged by the quick apprehension with which these views had been accepted,* I continued the subject, and pointed out the application of the same reasoning to the nature of miracles. The same machine could be set in such a manner that these laws might exist for any assigned number of times, whether large or small; also, that it was not necessary that these laws should be different, but the same law might, when the machine was set, be ordered to reappear, after any desired interval. Thus we might suppose an observer watching the machine, to see a known law continually fulfilled, until after a lengthened period, when a new law has been appointed to come in. This new law might after a single instance cease, and the first law might again be restored, and continue for another interval, when the second new law might again govern the machine as before for a single instance, and then give place to the original law.

This property of a mere piece of mechanism may have a parallel in the laws of human life.

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* Babbage’s interested audience, he tells us, consisted of “Dr Lloyd, the present Provost of Trinity College, and Dr Robinson, of Armagh”. Babbage assembled the first portion of his engine in 1833, when Bartholomew Lloyd (1772-1837) was Provost, serving from 1831 to 1837. Thomas Romney Robinson (1792-1882) was director of the Armagh Observatory from 1823 until his death. Another Lloyd, Humphrey Lloyd, was appointed Provost in 1867 but Babbage’s autobiography was published in 1864.

Précis

Charles Babbage told two friends that the rules governing the operation of his Difference Engine might not be unlike those governing the miraculous. He began by noting that a casual observer might think his machine had violated its program when it had simply switched from one program to another. Some aspects of human existence, he said, may be similar.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What emboldened Babbage to tell his friends about his theories on the miraculous?

Suggestion

Their keen interest in his previous remarks.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Babbage made a calculating machine. He showed it to two friends. Their interest was obvious.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

IFace. IIHide. IIIPlain.

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