This was in the 1850s. Babbabe was not trying to make a machine that thinks like a human. He designed a mechanical calculator capable of automatically solving differential equations, not a chatbot capable of holding a conversation with the user.
Perhaps the Difference Engine was described as a "mechanical brain" or something similar and that gave the MP the wrong expectation. He wasn't being insightful, only confused.
babbage was very much selling it as a miracle machine -- i think these replies echo the debate today.
one myopic side of engineers, another with an intuitive understanding of ecological rationality... a complete chasm of understanding whereby the machinist thinks of themselves as a series of cogs
Babbage here, is being archetypally dumb -- the dumbness of his ilk reduced down in this perfectly condescending quote
What other terms should he be trying to think in? He was asked about his machine! And he understood the question perfectly well. The asker thought his machine is some kind of Victorian ChatGPT that enters a dialogue with the user.
I mean, imagine the Wright brothers: "Does your machine need to build a nest to lay its eggs? Does it migrate in the winter?". What are they supposed to think, no, the question makes sense because our machine flies like a bird so it should be expected to behave like a bird in other ways also?
Perhaps the Difference Engine was described as a "mechanical brain" or something similar and that gave the MP the wrong expectation. He wasn't being insightful, only confused.