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Understanding the Psychology Behind the Calculating Engine

Michael Cummings

Department of Psychology, Keiser University

PSY502: History and Systems of Psychology

Dr. Fernandez

Week 1 Philosopher's Assignment

July 9th, 2023

Understanding the Psychology Behind the Calculating Engine

In this paper, we will be exploring the life and significant contributions of Charles

Babbage. He was a philosopher, mathematician, mechanical engineer, and inventor during the

19th century. His work has influenced the world greatly and is recognized worldwide.

The Life and Brilliants of Charles Babbage

In 1991, the British Association celebrated the bicentenary of one of its greatest founders,

Charles Babbage (Fauvel, 1992). Babbage, who was born on December 26, 1791, in London,

United Kingdom, was a child prodigy with a fascination for clocks and automata. He even

purchased a mechanical figure of a dancing lady. Babbage's talent for mathematics led him to

study the subject independently and, upon enrolling at Cambridge University, he found that he

knew more than his professors. Eventually, Babbage became a mathematics professor at

Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a renowned intellectual of his time. His lifelong

objective was to create a calculating machine more efficient than humans that could print the

results. In pursuit of this goal, Babbage developed the fundamental principles that underlie

modern computers, which we still use today.

Schultz & Schultz (2015) state that Babbage wasn't necessarily the first person to create a

mechanical computing machine. In fact, an ancient device called the Antikythera computer was

discovered in 1900 in a shipwreck off the coast of Greece. The Antikythera computer was

roughly the size of a modern laptop and had a series of gears that could calculate information

about the positions of celestial bodies. While the automata we mentioned earlier were designed

to imitate human physical actions, Babbage's calculator was designed to imitate human mental

actions. It could perform mathematical calculations and even play games like chess and

checkers. Babbage called his calculator the "difference engine," and it was made up of over
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2,000 brass and steel parts that were powered by a hand crank. This machine, which still works

today, is considered a major breakthrough in the development of sophisticated computers and

artificial intelligence (Schultz & Schultz, 2015).

Babbage aimed to gain support for his new machine by impressing influential people of

his time. He threw lavish parties at his London home, inviting up to 300 elite guests, including

Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens. Babbage was a popular and brilliant inventor, and people

were eager to be seen in his presence and marvel at his machine. However, as the complete

engine was too large for his home, he had a smaller working model built to entertain visitors.

This model was two-and-a-half feet tall, two feet wide, and two feet deep. Babbage's difference

engine failed due to high-cost overruns, and the government withdrew support. He shifted focus

to the analytical engine, a general-purpose digital computing machine, but it was never built due

to insufficient funds as the government declined to support his projects again (O'Donnell, 1985).

Although Charles Babbage did not directly claim that his machines could think, he did

not discourage others from making that assertion. According to a historian, Babbage often

described his machines' capabilities as being able to "replace" or "substitute" certain mental

activities, such as performing math computations faster than humans (Schultz & Schultz, 2015).

At first, Babbage believed that his efforts to invent the calculating machine were wasted and that

no one would acknowledge the value of his contributions. However, his work was eventually

recognized. In 1946, when Harvard University developed the first fully automatic computing

machine, one computer pioneer referred to it as the realization of Babbage's dream. In 1991, to

honor the bicentennial of Babbage's birth, a group of British scientists built a replica of one of

his dream machines, based on his original drawings. This device weighs three tons and

comprises 4,000 components that perform calculations without errors (Schultz & Schultz, 2015).
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Conclusion

In the nineteenth century, Charles Babbage had a forward-thinking vision of humans

functioning as machines. He created a calculating machine that laid the foundation for modern

computers and was the first successful attempt at mimicking human cognitive processes and

developing artificial intelligence. During Babbage's time, scientists and inventors believed that

machines had limitless potential in terms of their functions and ability to imitate human-like

activities. Charles Babbage and his work inspired many future scientists and is recognized for

being a genius ahead of his time.

References

Fauvel, J. (1992). Remembering Charles Babbage (1791–1871). Interdisciplinary Science

Reviews, 17:4, 304-308, DOI: 10.1179/isr.1992.17.4.304

O'Donnell, J. (1985) Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer. By Anthony Hyman, The

American Mathematical Monthly, 92:7, 522-525,

DOI: 10.1080/00029890.1985.11971672

Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2015). A History of Modern Psychology (11th ed.). Cengage

Learning.