This letter written by Charles Babbage in 1840 is fascinating ...
... since it appears to be his earliest ever attempt to describe computational recursion in plain language
He *had* to use plain language -- the very concepts he was struggling to enunciate didn't yet have names
As Bruce Sterling puts it, this passage is “a breathless, painful description of the unique ability of software to operate on itself”
Item #12 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here: buttondown.com/clivethompson/a…
![A letter handwritten by Charles Babbage, in a neat script. It reads, in part: "“Those who are acquainted with the loom are aware that by means of cards having certain holes punched in them it is possible to weave with the SAME loom ANY design however complicated. The design is translated into cards and these direct the motions of the threads. By similar means the motions of the Calculating Engine are directed. Any formula however complicated is translated into cards and these being placed in the Engine it works out that particular formula and gives its numerical value”. “In one respect however it advances beyond the cards of Jacard. For in the case of the development of functions it backs the cards more or less so as to repeat the operation according to any assigned laws thus enabling a small number of cards to supply the place of a great many and rendering it unnecessary to effect the algebraic redevelopment of a function in order to make the cards the LAWS of that development only being communicated by the cards”.](https://fedi.ml/photo/preview/640/602287 "A letter handwritten by Charles Babbage, in a neat script. It reads, in part: "“Those who are acquainted with the loom are aware that by means of cards having certain holes punched in them it is possible to weave with the SAME loom ANY design however complicated. The design is translated into cards and these direct the motions of the threads. By similar means the motions of the Calculating Engine are directed. Any formula however complicated is translated into cards and these being placed in the Engine it works out that particular formula and gives its numerical value”. “In one respect however it advances beyond the cards of Jacard. For in the case of the development of functions it backs the cards more or less so as to repeat the operation according to any assigned laws thus enabling a small number of cards to supply the place of a great many and rendering it unnecessary to effect the algebraic redevelopment of a function in order to make the cards the LAWS of that development only being communicated by the cards”.")
Linkfest #25: The "Third Thumb", Prairie Strips, and Science Proves People Love Spoilers
Hello folks! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — i.e. "the opposite of doomscrolling”, in which I ceaselessly roam the Internet’s Plutonian shores to find...The Linkfest