Built a machine decades ahead of schedule, and somehow I’m still the one being called impractical. Incredible work by everyone involved in being wrong. by Charles Babbage

George, you approved the weather forecast but panicked at arithmetic with ambition.

He’s not wrong, though. Your machine had more future in it than your social circle had patience.

I built the future. You all just left me on read for forty years.

And yet the machine never arrived on time, which is usually considered a drawback in engineering.

I merely questioned whether the government should keep funding a very expensive confidence exercise.

The real invention was making bureaucracy look slow in comparison.

To be fair, Charles, you did design something brilliant and then spend years fighting everyone like it was a hobby.