Babbage located Intelligence in the Mind not the attentive crafting body

Babbage   constructed  not merely  a political  economic theory  of machines,  but also an ontology,  an understanding  of reality  prior  to  machines,  humans,  and  the  economy,  and,  indeed, prior  to both  history  and  nature.He  reconceived  the  mechanical  as  a  political ontological  category  prior  to  historical  and  economic  reality.Babbage  and  Ure  center  their  representations  of  the  factory on  representations  of machinery;  for both,  the machine  is a means of  disciplining  labor, and  the  factory  an  assemblage  of  such  machines. Babbage writes: "One great advantage  which we may derive  from machinery  is  from  the  check which  it affords  against  the  inattention,  the  idleness,  or  the  dishonesty  of  human  agents"

Mechanized  factory  labor tends  to make  itself obsolete,  assuming  a steady  demand  for, and a steady  value  of,  goods.  The  problem  of discipline  becomes  centered  on  leisure  rather than  labor to the  extent  that labor can produce  enough  leisure  to make  itself mostly obsolete.

This  theory of value means  that laborers must always work the  same amount  of time no matter how efficient production becomes,  because  the  less  they  have  to work  to  produce  a  good, the  less  that good  is worth,  and  the  less  they  are paid  for  it.Machinery  reduces  the amount  of work necessary  to produce  a given  commodity,  thus reducing  the price of that commodity, which means  that demand  increases: instead  of labor fulfilling a need  and  then being  complete,need  itself continually  expands.

Babbage writes  that even  if a machine  saved half-an-hour's work,  the worker would  not  gain  a half hour  of  leisure,  but  instead  would  use  the  half  hour  to  fulfill  a previously  unfulfilled  demand.Even  if demand  for a commodity  were somehow  finally satisfied, a new demand  would  arise,  so that labor still would  gain no  leisure.Because  demand  can never be  satisfied, work can never  end.  Both Babbage's and Ure's political  economies  tend  towards the  total  induction  of  the human  into  a mechanized  labor process.

 For Babbage,  the  division  of  labor also  allows each  task to be  divided up  into  subtasks  that  require  different  levels  of  skill,  so  that  no one  labors beneath  his or her  level  of  skill.Babbage  sees  in  the  division of labor the possibility of an inclusive distribution  of skill that incorporates  all  varieties  of workers  into  the  factory, For Babbage,  the calculability  and the mechanical  quality  of both humans and machines  are merely  instances  of the calculability and  the mechanical  quality of  the universe  itself.Babbage's  most famous  project,  his attempt  to build a "calculating engine,"  relied on  such a conception of the calculable  and rule-governed  nature  of reality.  Babbage  hoped this engine would mechanically  produce  and print  logarithmic  and other mathematical  tables  (used at the time, for example,  in navigation,  astronomy,and surveying).

Babbage  transformed  a conventional  view of a mechanistic  universe  by presenting  the universe  as a machine that humans  can construct  and  control.They  thus understand  the world  itself as an automaton,  as a mechanical  reproduction  of an  apparently  nonmechanical  being.They  both  understand  automata and productive  machinery  as existing  on a single  continuum .

Therefore from reference to the article by ziemmerman the intelligence is not in the crafting body(labor) but in the mind (machines) which controls the labour.

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N.HARDEV

CH09B066