Babbage located intelligence in the mind not the attentive crafting mind. Discussion to this with reference to the articles made by Schafer and Zimmerman
.In 18th century so many inventions made and they are developing till now .life is becoming more mechanical. The understanding of life was more mechanistic by which mind was viewed separated from the body. intelligence is defined by the “mind” because the bodily labour can be done by a “machine” and Charles Babbage was one among then who wanted to “substitute” “mind” using a machine. Charles Babbage difference engine has become a water mark in the history of automata. The difference engine is given significance because In other cases, mechanical devices have substituted machines for simpler tools or for bodily labour. But difference engine substitutes mechanical performance for an intellectual process.
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'. His second engine the 'Analytical engine' was also an attempt to simulate intelligence. He thought that the introduction of machine would increase accuracy. Babbage's high estimation of the potential intelligence of machines rested on his idea of a mechanical universe. Referring to Zimmerman's article we understand that Babbage had a mechanistic idea of the whole universe, according to him everything is governed by some set of “laws assigned by the Almighty for the government of matter and of mind".
Babbage’s definition of intelligence is the combination of memory and foresight. According to Babbage the owner of an article is the person who designs rather than a person who crafts it. 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'
Babbage understood intelligence is of the mind , not in the body, in other words owner is he mind of the inventor and not craftspeople. This was extended to the way he understood 'factory', systematize the unintelligent work to make the product of the intelligent.
Babbage gave importance to the result rather than the process by which it is done. The end result was identical if it was a machine or a human who does the work. He equalized the machine and the power needed to the skilled labour. This made the skilled labour to be seen as a equivalent to the machine handled by an unskilled labour(to be given less wage).As I have mentioned above the shift from the multiple “small” scale enterprises to “capitalist” “large” enterprise has forced the “supervising” term to check the discipline made the labour to do work in a “programmed ” fashion without using his “own knowledge”, by this we can say intelligence exists in mind rather than the skillful artisan,because there is no use of his skill as “all the thinking” is done by the inventor or the supervisor and the “skillful” does a work of low significance. According to babbage the owner of a article is who designs it rather than a person who crafts it.
Babbage understandings on intelligence is reflected to all of his works. finally according to babbage the intelligence is limited to mind of the inventor rather than body’s craftsman.
By
J.santosh kumar
EE09b085.
No comments:
Post a Comment