The greatest machine that never was?-?John Graham-Cumming
David Alayón
Chief Executive Officer @ Innuba · Innovation Advisor @ Mindset · Fellow @ Acumen · Professor @ IE & Headspring · Author of UPGRADE · Futures & Foresight enthusiast
Just a moment ago I read in Martin Gallardo’s book “The Future Is Waiting: A compilation of mind-blowing predictions about the future” the following sentence:
A proper futurist should also be a very open minded historian. At the end, forecasting uses historical data and trends, combined with future assumptions
…and besides thinking in Harari’s Sapiens (must read!), I remembered John Graham-Cumming’s video: The greatest machine that never was.
It’s a TEDx Talk that briefly tells the history of computer science, focusing on Charles Babbage and his inventions. I love Babbage’s story, his theoretical approach to a supercomputer (analytical machine) and his relationship with Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, who not only saw his mathematical potential (and wrote programs for it) but also imagined the future of computers.
Curious fact: Modern engineers constructed the Difference Engine №2, a second approach Babbage did but didn’t built either, using Victorian era technology and proved that it worked, after sorting out some minor bugs.
#365daysof #computers #technology #babbage #lovelace #day125