Charles Babbage: His Work Was Remarkable

Nevertheless, in retrospect we must regard Babbage's work as nothing less than remarkable, since he envisioned so many of the features of present-day computers. It is difficult to appreciate just how radical this idea must have seemed to Babbage's 19th-century audience.

Remember: until that time, fundamental to the idea of a "machine" was that it do something, something very specific, in fact. Then, along came Babbage with his machine, which either did "nothing" or "anything," depending upon how you looked at it. It must have seemed a little like the classic Seinfeld episode in which George and Jerry feign ingenuity by proposing a "show about nothing."