Some of [Lovelace's] comments sound remarkably modern. One is very appropriate to a discussion there was in England which arose from a tendency, even in the more responsible press, to use the term “electronic brain” for equipment such as electronic calculating machines, automatic pilots for aircraft, etc. I considered it necessary to protest against this usage (51), as the term would suggest to the layman that equipment of this kind could “think for itself,” whereas this is just what it cannot do; all the thinking has to be done beforehand by the designer and by the operator who provides the operating instructions for the particular problem; all the machine can do is to follow these instructions exactly, and this is true even though they involve the faculty of “judgment.” I found afterwards that over a hundred years ago Lady Lovelace had put the point firmly and concisely (C, p. 44) : “The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to oriqinate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform” (her italics).

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Some of [Lovelace's] comments sound remarkably modern. One is very appropriate to a discussion there was in England which arose from a tendency, even in the more responsible press, to use the term “electronic brain” for equipment such as electronic calculating machines, automatic pilots for aircraft, etc. I considered it necessary to protest against this usage (51), as the term would suggest to the layman that equipment of this kind could “think for itself,” whereas this is just what it cannot do; all the thinking has to be done beforehand by the designer and by the operator who provides the operating instructions for the particular problem; all the machine can do is to follow these instructions exactly, and this is true even though they involve the faculty of “judgment.” I found afterwards that over a hundred years ago Lady Lovelace had put the point firmly and concisely (C, p. 44) : “The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to oriqinate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform” (her italics)." in the context of "Calculating Instruments and Machines (1949, Douglas Hartree), page 70." to mean that wisdom is timeless.