That is the view of Doron Swade, the man who is behind realising the creation of the famed Difference Engine No 2 which has just gone on display in Silicon Valley.
The reason the machine is so highly regarded is because it is seen as the first attempt at automated computing and viewed as something of a missing link in technology history.
Designed by the 19th Century computer pioneer Charles Babbage, the Difference Engine No 2 is a piece of Victorian technology meant to compute mathematical expressions called polynomials and return results to more than 31 digits, knocking the socks off your souped up pocket calculator.
Added to that it has a printer which stamps the results of its calculations on paper and on a plaster tray.
"You can stand in front of this monster of a machine as a Victorian would have done and still have the sense of wonder a Victorian would have had at that time," marvels Mr Swade.
"It takes you back 150 years to a branching point in history and allows you to speculate what might have been had this engine been built."
Personal mission
Regardless of the obvious beauty of the machine, Babbage's vision for it was very practical. To eliminate human error in tabulation.
Everyone from financiers to scientists and from engineers to astronomers "relied on printed mathematical tables and the fear was that these tables were riddled with errors because they were produced by humans and by hand," explains Mr Swade.
Original Post : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7391593.stm
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