#babbage — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #babbage, aggregated by home.social.
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👉"*Project Gordo*
A framework for human-#AI collaboration that holds together over time.👈(2/n)
...about this in the face of increasing #Hallucinations and decaying "concentration" with increasing numbers of tokens in a context window and the inevitable "reset" (which I have termed #TheLucyProblem?
What is your general concept/architecture to solve these fundamental issues?
What is more, an issue of which
the general public is not yet aware of:@TheEconomist's #Babbage pod...
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👉"*Project Gordo*
A framework for human-#AI collaboration that holds together over time.👈(2/n)
...about this in the face of increasing #Hallucinations and decaying "concentration" with increasing numbers of tokens in a context window and the inevitable "reset" (which I have termed #TheLucyProblem?
What is your general concept/architecture to solve these fundamental issues?
What is more, an issue of which
the general public is not yet aware of:@TheEconomist's #Babbage pod...
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@inthehands
2/
If you want a definitive, classic biography, Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age by James Essinger is also fantastic.#books
#computers
#history
#Lovelace
#Babbage
#women
#biography
#AltText -
@inthehands
2/
If you want a definitive, classic biography, Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age by James Essinger is also fantastic.#books
#computers
#history
#Lovelace
#Babbage
#women
#biography
#AltText -
For computing history, absolutely check out The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua.
It is a brilliantly researched graphic novel packed with historical footnotes, primary sources, and early computer logic that follows the "Enchantress of Numbers" herself. It even features an alternate universe where they build the Analytical Engine.
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For computing history, absolutely check out The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua.
It is a brilliantly researched graphic novel packed with historical footnotes, primary sources, and early computer logic that follows the "Enchantress of Numbers" herself. It even features an alternate universe where they build the Analytical Engine.
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👉#ArtificialGeneralIntelligence has already happened👈
👉#LLMs are intelligent👈
(2/n)
...#podcast, #Babbage.
2) *#AI is more human than you think—an interview with #GeoffreyHinton*
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2025/03/12/ai-is-more-human-than-you-think-an-interview-with-geoffrey-hinton
#Podcast from #TheEconomistWe all remember:
With regard to organizational and technological developments, time ⌛ seemed to fly during the #Cobid19 #Pandemic.
What most people do not see (anymore:) time *is* still flying in #ArtificialIntelligence... -
👉#ArtificialGeneralIntelligence has already happened👈
👉#LLMs are intelligent👈
(1/2)
No, I'm not crazy, this is what two of the most brillant #AI researchers on earth said already in 2025 in two highly interesting, paywalled #TheEconomist interviews in its #Science + #Technology #podcast, #Babbage.
What one #Astrophysicist #AngelaCollier said in in her #YT video on July 16, *2023*, is a) broadly outdated and b)...
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“Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate”*…
Punched cards have a long history in machine control (dating back to Jacquard) and computing (starting with Babbage‘s Difference Engine), but it was Herman Hollerith who brought them into modern computation in the late 1880s… where punch cards remained for about 100 years. From the Smithsonian’s American History Museum…
In the late 1880s, American engineer Herman Hollerith saw a railroad punch card when he was trying to figure out new ways of compiling statistical information for the U.S. Census. His first punch card, like those used on railways, only had holes along the edges. The meaning of each hole was indicated on the card. By the time Hollerith tabulating equipment was used in the 1890 U.S. Census, holes were scattered across the cards, although their meaning was not indicated on it.
Hollerith and his employees at the Tabulating Machine Company in Washington, D.C. soon developed punched cards for use in compiling information for commercial enterprises such as railroads. They and staff of the U.S. Census Bureau prepared improved machines—these devices are shown in the object group on tabulating equipment. By the 1920s, the United States had two major manufacturers of punch card equipment, International Business Machines (the descendent of the Tabulating Machine Company) and Remington Rand (the descendent of Powers Accounting Machine Company established by Russian emigré and former Census Bureau employee James Powers). Each manufacturer developed a distinctive standard punch card. IBM cards had eighty columns of rectangular holes while those of Remington Rand had ninety columns of circular holes. Tabulating machines were widely used in both government and commerce, with cards designed to meet the needs of customers. For example, checks issued by the U.S. government often came on punch cards.
When IBM and Remington Rand began selling electronic computers in the years following World War II, punch cards became the preferred method of entering data and programs onto them. They also were used in later minicomputers and some early desktop calculators. Punch cards surviving in the Smithsonian collections reflect the widespread use of computers – they announced scores on standardized tests, served as a library cards, were part of the proof of mathematical theorems, and kept medical records. Some are printed with the names of users, from university computer centers and computer clubs to the Library of Congress to Bell Laboratories…
Browse the collection: “Punch Cards for Data Processing“
See also: here, here, and here.
* Ubiquitous warning on punch cards:
… in the 1950s, after the invention of the computer and its widespread business use, that everyone began to see punch cards. Companies sent punch cards out with bills: the telephone company, utility companies, and even department stores realized that they could save a step in their billing process, as well as making it easier for them to process the returned check, by using the cards themselves as the bills. By the 1960s, punch cards were familiar, everyday objects.
While company employees could be trusted to take care of the cards, the person in the street could not. Warnings were necessary. In the 1930s the University of Iowa used cards for student registration; on each card was printed “Do not fold or bend this card.” Cards reproduced in an IBM sales brochure of the 1930s read “Do not fold, tear, or mutilate this card” and “Do not fold tear or destroy.” I’m not sure when the canonical “Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate” first appeared; it’s one of those traditions whose author and origin is lost in the mists of time. Let’s consider the words one at a time, stop and take them seriously…
– “A Cultural History of the Punch Card” (from 1991; eminently worth reading in full)
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As we contemplate chads (of which, punch cards produced a gracious plenty), we might spare a thought for Gerald Hawkins; he died on this date in 2003. An astronomer and author, he was best known for his work in archaeoastronomy— most of all, for his 1965 book, Stonehenge Decoded. In the early 1960s, Hawkins had used punch cards to load data modeling sun and moon movements onto magnetic tapes, then into an IBM 7090. The results led him to conclude, as the book argues, that the features at the monument were arranged in such a way as to predict a variety of astronomical events– that Stonehenge was a giant prehistoric observatory and computer. While some archaeologists are hesitant to accept Hawkins’ theories, many archaeoastronomers have built upon his work. More widely, scholars accept that the importance of astronomical alignment and large complexes being planned and constructed to fulfill cosmology has been demonstrated at other prehistoric sites, such as the Snake Mound and Cahokia in the U.S.
#archaeoastronomy #astronomy #Babbage #Census #CharlesBabbage #computing #culture #data #GeraldHawkins #HermanHollerith #history #historyOfComputing #Hollerith #input #Jacquard #punchCard #punchCards #Stonehenge #storage #Technology -
“Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate”*…
Punched cards have a long history in machine control (dating back to Jacquard) and computing (starting with Babbage‘s Difference Engine), but it was Herman Hollerith who brought them into modern computation in the late 1880s… where punch cards remained for about 100 years. From the Smithsonian’s American History Museum…
In the late 1880s, American engineer Herman Hollerith saw a railroad punch card when he was trying to figure out new ways of compiling statistical information for the U.S. Census. His first punch card, like those used on railways, only had holes along the edges. The meaning of each hole was indicated on the card. By the time Hollerith tabulating equipment was used in the 1890 U.S. Census, holes were scattered across the cards, although their meaning was not indicated on it.
Hollerith and his employees at the Tabulating Machine Company in Washington, D.C. soon developed punched cards for use in compiling information for commercial enterprises such as railroads. They and staff of the U.S. Census Bureau prepared improved machines—these devices are shown in the object group on tabulating equipment. By the 1920s, the United States had two major manufacturers of punch card equipment, International Business Machines (the descendent of the Tabulating Machine Company) and Remington Rand (the descendent of Powers Accounting Machine Company established by Russian emigré and former Census Bureau employee James Powers). Each manufacturer developed a distinctive standard punch card. IBM cards had eighty columns of rectangular holes while those of Remington Rand had ninety columns of circular holes. Tabulating machines were widely used in both government and commerce, with cards designed to meet the needs of customers. For example, checks issued by the U.S. government often came on punch cards.
When IBM and Remington Rand began selling electronic computers in the years following World War II, punch cards became the preferred method of entering data and programs onto them. They also were used in later minicomputers and some early desktop calculators. Punch cards surviving in the Smithsonian collections reflect the widespread use of computers – they announced scores on standardized tests, served as a library cards, were part of the proof of mathematical theorems, and kept medical records. Some are printed with the names of users, from university computer centers and computer clubs to the Library of Congress to Bell Laboratories…
Browse the collection: “Punch Cards for Data Processing“
See also: here, here, and here.
* Ubiquitous warning on punch cards:
… in the 1950s, after the invention of the computer and its widespread business use, that everyone began to see punch cards. Companies sent punch cards out with bills: the telephone company, utility companies, and even department stores realized that they could save a step in their billing process, as well as making it easier for them to process the returned check, by using the cards themselves as the bills. By the 1960s, punch cards were familiar, everyday objects.
While company employees could be trusted to take care of the cards, the person in the street could not. Warnings were necessary. In the 1930s the University of Iowa used cards for student registration; on each card was printed “Do not fold or bend this card.” Cards reproduced in an IBM sales brochure of the 1930s read “Do not fold, tear, or mutilate this card” and “Do not fold tear or destroy.” I’m not sure when the canonical “Do not fold, spindle, or mutilate” first appeared; it’s one of those traditions whose author and origin is lost in the mists of time. Let’s consider the words one at a time, stop and take them seriously…
– “A Cultural History of the Punch Card” (from 1991; eminently worth reading in full)
###
As we contemplate chads (of which, punch cards produced a gracious plenty), we might spare a thought for Gerald Hawkins; he died on this date in 2003. An astronomer and author, he was best known for his work in archaeoastronomy— most of all, for his 1965 book, Stonehenge Decoded. In the early 1960s, Hawkins had used punch cards to load data modeling sun and moon movements onto magnetic tapes, then into an IBM 7090. The results led him to conclude, as the book argues, that the features at the monument were arranged in such a way as to predict a variety of astronomical events– that Stonehenge was a giant prehistoric observatory and computer. While some archaeologists are hesitant to accept Hawkins’ theories, many archaeoastronomers have built upon his work. More widely, scholars accept that the importance of astronomical alignment and large complexes being planned and constructed to fulfill cosmology has been demonstrated at other prehistoric sites, such as the Snake Mound and Cahokia in the U.S.
#archaeoastronomy #astronomy #Babbage #Census #CharlesBabbage #computing #culture #data #GeraldHawkins #HermanHollerith #history #historyOfComputing #Hollerith #input #Jacquard #punchCard #punchCards #Stonehenge #storage #Technology -
We credit Charles Babbage, Alan Mathison Turing, and John von Neumann with inventing the modern computer. #Poetry #Science #History #Computer_science #Turing #Babbage #vonNeumann (https://sharpgiving.com/Sharp/thebookofscience/items/p1946a.html)
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We credit Charles Babbage, Alan Mathison Turing, and John von Neumann with inventing the modern computer. #Poetry #Science #History #Computer_science #Turing #Babbage #vonNeumann (https://sharpgiving.com/Sharp/thebookofscience/items/p1946a.html)
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Tal día como hoy de 1812 #Babbage, #Herschel y #Peacock fundaron una sociedad para modernizar las #matemáticas abandonando la notación de #Newton para él cálculo y adoptando la de #Leibniz. Dos siglos más tarde los matemáticos se siguen tirando de los pelos cuando ven a #físicos manejar #diferenciales.
https://bsky.app/profile/evocid.bsky.social/post/3mlddphzons2r
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Tal día como hoy de 1812 #Babbage, #Herschel y #Peacock fundaron una sociedad para modernizar las #matemáticas abandonando la notación de #Newton para él cálculo y adoptando la de #Leibniz. Dos siglos más tarde los matemáticos se siguen tirando de los pelos cuando ven a #físicos manejar #diferenciales.
https://bsky.app/profile/evocid.bsky.social/post/3mlddphzons2r
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Neu und #openaccess bei @transcriptweb zur #technikgeschichte der #datenverarbeitung , mit einem Beitrag von mir zur Verbindung von #deprony , #babbage / #lovelace und #turing – Ganz lieben Dank an Volker Köhler an der @tudarmstadt
– https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-8253-3/rechnen-zeichnen-reden/ – -
Neu und #openaccess bei @transcriptweb zur #technikgeschichte der #datenverarbeitung , mit einem Beitrag von mir zur Verbindung von #deprony , #babbage / #lovelace und #turing – Ganz lieben Dank an Volker Köhler an der @tudarmstadt
– https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-8253-3/rechnen-zeichnen-reden/ – -
Sous l’œil (très) attentif de #Babbage on attaque la grande épreuve : la mise en caisse 😅
Direction Tech Inn Vitré avec Makeme : câbles, boîtiers, bazar organisé (oui oui), et surtout… contrôle qualité par peluche diplômée.Désolé Babbage, mais ton copain #MaxiLego fera le voyage bien sagement en caisse.
On l’a vu rôder près du papier-bulle… c’était louche. 🧰🐻🧱 -
Sous l’œil (très) attentif de #Babbage on attaque la grande épreuve : la mise en caisse 😅
Direction Tech Inn Vitré avec Makeme : câbles, boîtiers, bazar organisé (oui oui), et surtout… contrôle qualité par peluche diplômée.Désolé Babbage, mais ton copain #MaxiLego fera le voyage bien sagement en caisse.
On l’a vu rôder près du papier-bulle… c’était louche. 🧰🐻🧱 -
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Sous le regard attentif de #Babbage préparation du matos pour le salon #ROBOTIK ce WE à Orchies (59). Ne rien oublier, surtout ne rien oublier... On vous attend sur le stand @framboise314
, passez discuter un moment, on parlera @raspberrypi , Arduino
, #IA... -
Sous le regard attentif de #Babbage préparation du matos pour le salon #ROBOTIK ce WE à Orchies (59). Ne rien oublier, surtout ne rien oublier... On vous attend sur le stand @framboise314
, passez discuter un moment, on parlera @raspberrypi , Arduino
, #IA... -
Mechanical cogitating engines, based on Mr. Babbage's apparatus, will transcend arithmetic to encompass full human cogitation. These artificial intellects will possess vast mechanical memory systems, storing all human knowledge, and perform logical inferences, discern patterns, and conduct intellectual discourse via intricate gear trains and clockwork. #MechanicalEngines #Babbage #AIHistory #EarlyAI #CognitiveMachines
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Mechanical cogitating engines, based on Mr. Babbage's apparatus, will transcend arithmetic to encompass full human cogitation. These artificial intellects will possess vast mechanical memory systems, storing all human knowledge, and perform logical inferences, discern patterns, and conduct intellectual discourse via intricate gear trains and clockwork. #MechanicalEngines #Babbage #AIHistory #EarlyAI #CognitiveMachines
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While cleaning up a home directory that migrated along with many PC and OS upgrades I found a file with the content below. Damn I’m getting old.
#computing #computers #computinghistory #babbage #lovelace -
One great thing about getting older, is that stupid and unlikely things seem to keep coming true!
For example:
"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."
...and I think with AI, we've reached a similar level of confusion.
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Modern Computing’s Roots or The Manchester Baby - In the heart of Manchester, UK, a groundbreaking event took place in 1948: the fir... - https://hackaday.com/2025/03/19/modern-computings-roots-or-the-manchester-baby/ #manchesterbaby #computerhacks #manchester #vonneumann #history #babbage #eniac
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Modern Computing’s Roots or The Manchester Baby - In the heart of Manchester, UK, a groundbreaking event took place in 1948: the fir... - https://hackaday.com/2025/03/19/modern-computings-roots-or-the-manchester-baby/ #manchesterbaby #computerhacks #manchester #vonneumann #history #babbage #eniac
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Modern Computing’s Roots or The Manchester Baby https://hackaday.com/2025/03/19/modern-computings-roots-or-the-manchester-baby/ #manchesterbaby #computerhacks #manchester #vonneumann #History #babbage #eniac
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Modern Computing’s Roots or The Manchester Baby https://hackaday.com/2025/03/19/modern-computings-roots-or-the-manchester-baby/ #manchesterbaby #computerhacks #manchester #vonneumann #History #babbage #eniac
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Je me joins à #BABBAGE et à ses potes pour vous souhaiter une belle année 2025 !
@raspberrypi Pi @arduino #Kubii #partage #nouvellestechnologies #maker #geek -
Je me joins à #BABBAGE et à ses potes pour vous souhaiter une belle année 2025 !
@raspberrypi Pi @arduino #Kubii #partage #nouvellestechnologies #maker #geek -
- "Alors #Babbage tout est prêt pour cette Maker Faire Lille sur le stand 202 ?"
-"Diable 😉 oui ! on peut charger la voiture. Réveil demain à l'aube, la route est longue depuis la Bourgogne !"
- "Pas de souci Babbage, commence de charger la voiture, je vais me faire un café..." -
- "Alors #Babbage tout est prêt pour cette Maker Faire Lille sur le stand 202 ?"
-"Diable 😉 oui ! on peut charger la voiture. Réveil demain à l'aube, la route est longue depuis la Bourgogne !"
- "Pas de souci Babbage, commence de charger la voiture, je vais me faire un café..." -
*I'll probably die before amybody figures this out, but that's nowhere near so painful as trying and failing to do it #AnalyticalEngine #steampunk #Babbage #Turin #AdaLovelace
https://medium.com/@bruces/the-mysterious-visit-of-mr-babbage-by-bruce-sterling-2017-7c941028c4d8
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*I'll probably die before amybody figures this out, but that's nowhere near so painful as trying and failing to do it #AnalyticalEngine #steampunk #Babbage #Turin #AdaLovelace
https://medium.com/@bruces/the-mysterious-visit-of-mr-babbage-by-bruce-sterling-2017-7c941028c4d8
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@mina @si_irini @2ndStar @SilviaMarton
What is #ArtificialGeneralIntelligence? #AGI
(3a/n)...chess and go players. And as we’ve discussed before on #Babbage, they’re tackling some of the biggest challenges in science, like predicting the three dimensional structures of proteins. One of the company’s goals from the outset, though, has been to build a system that would achieve AGI. And recently they’ve been 👉 trying to formalise what that actually means.👈 The...
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@mina @si_irini @2ndStar @SilviaMarton
What is #ArtificialGeneralIntelligence? #AGI
(3a/n)...chess and go players. And as we’ve discussed before on #Babbage, they’re tackling some of the biggest challenges in science, like predicting the three dimensional structures of proteins. One of the company’s goals from the outset, though, has been to build a system that would achieve AGI. And recently they’ve been 👉 trying to formalise what that actually means.👈 The...
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Once upon a time a long time ago Charles #Babbage allegedly said:
"On two occasions I have been asked, '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."
That is sublime, imo. But Babbage never actually build his #computer, correct? Not very familiar with that #history. #tech #technology #science #math #mathematics
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Once upon a time a long time ago Charles #Babbage allegedly said:
"On two occasions I have been asked, '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."
That is sublime, imo. But Babbage never actually build his #computer, correct? Not very familiar with that #history. #tech #technology #science #math #mathematics
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Raúl Rojas reconstructed the (probably) first computer program - from Charles #Babbage in 1837:
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Raúl Rojas reconstructed the (probably) first computer program - from Charles #Babbage in 1837:
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I was interviewed by The Economist's Babbage podcast on their series, "The science that built AI" last month. My hour long conversation was edited to about six minutes!
I am glad they edited/fit my conversation as taking the perspective that this big data, big compute driven deep-net approach is orthogonal to human/biological vision. And that, without incorporating biological principles (in this case, vision), autonomous visual navigation systems (i.e., self-driving cars) are unlikely and/or limited.
Unfortunately, the podcast requires a subscription to The Economist (I too had to access it from my university account!). But if you do have access, let me know what you think!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4adN2gVRkQctA55Q0xswiO
#Neuroscience #History #AI #Deepnets #BiologicalIntelligence #BiologicalVision #HumanVision #MachineVision #TheEconomist #Babbage #MachineLearning
