From: paul cockshott (clyder@GN.APC.ORG)
Date: Fri Jan 23 2004 - 05:29:33 EST
I wrote a couple of days ago: <The apparent unpredictableness of certain formal finite systems was already evident to Babbage in the 1830's. He discusses in 'Passages from the life of a Philospher', how his difference engine could be made to produce what appear to be a regular and monotonic sequence of numbers for a very long time, but then suddenly produce a number that was apparently unexplainable. With a typical Victorian mindset he suggested that a similar process might underly 'miracles'.> The BBC documentary program 'Inventions that Changed the World', last night had a dramatisation of this episode from Babbage's memoirs.
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