Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
Abstract
The mathematician and engineer Charles Babbage (1791–1871) is best remembered for his 'calculating machines', which are considered the forerunner of modern computers. Over the course of his life he wrote a number of books based on his scientific investigations, but in this volume, published in 1864, Babbage writes in a more personal vein. He points out at the beginning of the work that it 'does not aspire to the name of autobiography', though the chapters sketch out the contours of his life, beginning with his family, his childhood and formative years studying at Cambridge, and moving through various episodes in his scientific career. However, the work also diverges into his observations on other topics, as indicated by chapter titles such as 'Street Nuisances' and 'Wit'. Babbage's colourful recollections give an intimate portrait of the life of one of Britain's most influential inventors.
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Low-quality inputs yield equally poor outputs (garbage in, garbage out).
“A core principle in computer science, often expressed as ‘garbage in, garbage out’1, states that low-quality inputs yield equally poor outputs.”
From Medical large language models are vulnerable to data-poisoning attacks (2025) · cites this paper as [1]
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Medical large language models are vulnerable to data-poisoning attacks
Alber, D. A., Yang, Z., Alyakin, A., Yang, E., Rai, S., Valliani, A. A., Zhang, J., Rosenbaum, G. R., Amend-Thomas, A. K., Kurland, D. B., et al. (2025) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41591-024-03445-1 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
- Authors
- Babbage, C.
- Corresponding author
- Babbage, Charles
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2011-10-12
- OpenAlex
- W1571363720
- Cited by
- 428
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 8 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 38.97
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › History of Science and Medicine
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Autobiographical and Biographical Writing
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Biographical and Historical Analysis
- Keywords
- Charles Babbage, calculating machines, history of computing, University of Cambridge, childhood and education, scientific careers, inventors, wit
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