Charles Babbage Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Considered by some to be a "father of the computer", Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's analytical engine. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century. Parts of Babbage's incomplete
The Computer and the Brain it was published posthumously. The first edition was published in 1958 with a preface by Klara Dan von Neumann. The second edition, published in 2000, contains a foreword by Paul Churchland and Patricia Churchland that places von Neumann's views in the context of science at that time. The third edition, published in 2012, features a foreword by Ray Kurzweil. It has the . The Computer and the Brain The Computer and the Brain is an unfinished book by mathematician John von Neumann, begun shortly before his death and first published in 1958. Von Neumann was an important figure in computer