Babbage's geography of Intelligence

  Introduction

Babbage, a brilliant Cambridge Mathematician is often credited as the “father of the Computer”, and rightly so for his designs of the difference and analytical Engines. But more than these, his main contribution to Britain and to the world can be said to be his outlook towards Machinofacture and Industrialisation and his unending effort to push these ideas into mainstream industry of his day. Although, one might claim this is the obvious stance one of babbage’s analytically brilliance will take, it is undeniable today that it was also influenced intrinsically by Babbage’s view towards human intelligence and its associated qualities.

The Economics of Skill

             Babbage supported Adam Smith’s idea of Division of Labor. This however, as can be seen in Schaffer’s article, stemmed from his belief that labor of production should be divided into small portions each based on the level of ‘skill’ required to execute them and he automatically demarcated one from another as being ‘more’ or ‘less’ requiring of skill, thus, we can see that Babbage not only acknowledged in the difference of skills for various tasks but also ranked them based on the amount of skill required. He went on to compare Tasks requiring a different set of skills – those which were on different sectors so as to speak – for example, he believed that by standardization and making accurate mechanisms, the task of an artisan could be mechanized and hence reduced to his wage equivalent, thus what was once a very precious skill – which was highly dependent on one’s skill with their hands, basically a mastery over their motor skills was now trivialized by factory machines and hence according to Babbage less requiring of skill, whereas, Babbage held the ability to make such as machine, a design oriented task, such as his own designs of the analytical engine as well as the difference engine as “admirable adaptation of human Skill and Intelligence”, he believed that the machine oriented factory production system, as stated in his celebrated text ‘On the Economy of Machine and Manufacture', as “giving to the present age its peculiar and wonderful characteristic, namely the triumph of mind over matter.”. it remains to be clearly seen that Babbage laid stress upon the Designer (the intelligent mind) of the invention rather than the manufacturer (crafting body) of the object, even though both might be requiring of considerable skill although in different realms – one being more cerebral and the other more of an application of the body, requiring co-ordination and sound control of motor skills.

Conclusion

                Babbage even goes further by saying about his Inventions when once an Engineer who “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” We can see that according to Babbage the owner of an article is the person who designs rather than a person who crafts it. As one might expect from his previously seen weightage and assessment of ‘level of skill’ required to perform a task. Thus, on analysis, we find that much of the views Babbage had and hence helped to shape about his views towards Manufacture and Economy were based upon his intrinsic working philosophy of the superiority of the Mind over the Body, a belief I feel he made evident in his outlook towards machines, manufacture and above all, his view on the factory based production which has, for a large part, shaped the world as we know today.

References:

1. Schaffer, Simon - "Babbage's Intelligence: Calculating Engines and the Factory System." Critical Inquiry 21, no. 1 (1994): 203-227.

2. Zimmerman, Andrew - “The Ideology of the Machine and the Spirit of the Factory: Remarx on Babbage and Ure.” Cultural Critique No. 37 (Autumn, 1997), pp. 5-29

Barath