Following Vaucanson's creation of the defecating duck, a wide assortment of mechanical devices and contraptions were developed over the next century, designed as substitutes for intelligence, human labour and time. These machines tried to mimic the behaviour of humans, and could usually perform only one specific task. In this environment, Charles Babbage an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical engineer, popularly known as the 'father of computers', came with a 'calculating engine' which he advertised as 'Mechanized Intelligence’. However, the Analytical Engine planned by Babbage was different. Though only a small part of it was completed, Babbage designed it so that it could perform tasks which were then considered intellectual in nature.
During the World War 2, all tedious numerical calculations were carried out by human workers. These were performed mostly by female corps of young mathematicians, known as ‘computers’. Babbage’s Analytical engine was initially built to replace the human computers. He thought that the introduction of machine would increase accuracy. Babbage’s definition of intelligence is the combination of memory and foresight. He understood that intelligence is of the mind and not of the body. As Simon Schaffer aptly puts it,
“To make machines look intelligent it was necessary that the sources of their power, the labour force which surrounded and ran them, be rendered invisible”.
The machinery of the factory and the calculating engines precisely embodied the intelligence of theory and abolished individual intelligence of the worker. In other words, the owner of an article is the person who designs, rather than a person who crafts it. This was extended to the way he understood 'factory', systematize the unintelligent work to make the product of the intelligent. For Example, Introduction of machines made the labourers work in a programmed fashion, without using their own knowledge. By this we can say intelligence exists in mind of the inventor rather than the skillful artisan. There is no use of his skill as all the thinking is done by the inventor or the supervisor and the artisan does a work of very low significance. This made the skilled labour to be seen as an equivalent to the machine, handled by an unskilled labour (to be given lesser wage).
It can be seen when Babbage laid claims to owning the means of production, while his engineer thought he could make more calculating engines if they went into production. In Babbage own words on the 'Calculating engine':
“My right to dispose, as I will, of such inventions cannot be contested; it is more sacred in its nature than any hereditary or acquired property, for they are the absolute creations of my own mind.”
Such declarations demonstrated his control over the engine and camouflaged the work force on which it depended. So it clearly states the importance he gives to the mind than “crafting body”. According to Babbage, the machines in a factory will help to keep a check on the workers and increase their productivity. In Babbage' words:
"One great advantage which we may derive from machinery is from the check which it affords against the inattention, the idleness, or the dishonesty of human agents"
By this he makes a worker in a factory a 'slave of the machine', while factory represent 'admirable adaptations of human skill and intelligence' where we see 'the triumph of mind over matter'. Babbage puts machines between the mind and body, as the workers (body) are its slave while mind triumphs over machine.
In my opinion, Babbage's take on intelligence reflects his primarily mechanistic worldview. Today, we know that intelligence exists in several forms, analytic, synthetic and perhaps even emotional. Though it may reside in the mind, such a form of intelligence is severely limited unless expressed by the body or some automaton capable of capturing it. At this stage in our development of AI, we still have a long way to go before we can claim that our machines truly embody a genuine form of intelligence.
Saptarshi Prakash
EE09B076
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