26

The Hardware Lottery

Quote:

On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

a day agob3lvedere

he just meant did you cheat and put the answers inside the machine before the experiment began

a day agopocksuppet

I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a comment.

a day agoY_Y

There are far more localised versions of this in research facilities whereby budget, and available hardware is determining the focus of research far more than idea and it being right.

This is where open source hardware is key