Charles Babbage’s Observations on Street Nuisances (1864) | Hacker News Reader

Charles Babbage’s Observations on Street Nuisances (1864)

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I produced Babbage’s autobiography (that this was taken from) for Standard Ebooks as a nice ePub edition (darkmode-compatible SVG illustrations, MathML, etc etc). Hope you enjoy it; I certainly did.

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/charles-babbage/passages-f...

My favourite "oh, Babbage" story is his letter to Tennyson¹. It shares a lot in common with the linked noise nuisances, as he appears to genuinely want to improve society². It is just that is his manner leaves a lot to be desired.

I often try to think of him when I'm busily writing a code review or such, in an attempt to sound a little more pleasant. My admission is that is doesn't always work ;)

1. https://lettersofnote.com/2012/09/21/the-vision-of-sin/

2. Whether we agree about his poetry edits or silent streets being an improvement is a different point.

My favourite is Babbage and Brunel almost running into each while driving trains:

https://moorsidepublications.com/2015/07/01/babbage-gets-inv...

Babbage was driving a train on a Sunday to run some tests as he didn't think anyone else would be about - Brunel having borrowed a train (!) to get back after a night out.

In the book "The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer" [1], author Doron Swade argued that Babbage suffered from tinnitus [2] in his old age and that's what drove him to wage war on noisy street musicians.

[1] https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Difference_Engine.h...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus

It's important to note that the "human voice" noises of that era were more like San Francisco's 6th and Market at night. It wasn't just people talking; it was people shouting over each other, people fighting, and the mentally ill screaming.

Thankfully, those days are gone in most of Western society, but there's still the constant din of machines and vehicles.

It's probably really difficult to judge his perspective from here and now-- that was written in a time before air conditioning and forced ventilation along with inexpensive clear glass made it reasonable to close windows. It was a time before noise ordinances which are ubiquitous in the developed world today.

I recall reading that Babbage was so well-known for his disdain for street musicians that when he was campaigning against them (to parliament, iirc?) buskers would flashmob outside his house to deliberately taunt him.

Not the Original grumpy old guy, but a good example of the species.

> Actually, I have for a long time been of the opinion that the quantity of noise anyone can comfortably endure is in inverse proportion to their mental powers, and can therefore be regarded as a rough measure of them.

Ditto.

My personal subjective observation on tolerance of meaningless noise and mental powers of others coincides with this observation.

This getting downvoted would improve my opinion of both the noise intolerance and intellectual prowess of the hackernews community.

It was Schoppenhauer’s opinion too. See his essay “On Noise”.

A counter example is John von Neumann who preferred working in noisy environments.

There's a quote from Schopenhauer's "The World as Will" in the article as well. Interesting about von Neumann, I would never have guessed.

For work I need either silence or non-distracting music, noise can really interrupt my flow. There's construction going with my neighbours now and it's impossible to get anything done unless I use my ANC headphones..

> at the IAS received complaints for regularly playing extremely loud German march music on the gramophone in his office, distracting those in neighboring offices, including Albert Einstein. In fact, von Neumann claimed to do some of his best work in noisy, chaotic environments such as in the living room of his house with the television blaring. Despite being a bad driver, he loved driving, often while reading books, leading to various arrests and accidents.

https://medium.com/cantors-paradise/the-unparalleled-genius-...

Interested by your second assertion. Do you have some quote or source?

Meh. I know people who can study in a crowded room, prefer it even, and others who would lose their mind at the mere mention of attempting such a thing.

I don’t find it difficult to tune noise out, personally. It’s kind of like blurring your own vision. That said, I’m a musician. It’s possible I’m just better at directing (redirecting?) my ear.

Big5 traits: Neuroticism. If it's high, you'll be intolerant of noise. Unsure if neuroticism correlates with intelligence.[1]

[1]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01918....

Don't assume for others what feels true for yourself, Mr. Babbage. That is a true sign of low intellectual prowess.

And I say that as somebody who thinks street musicians/"artists" in subway cars are criminals and should be prosecuted. I can not run away and I didn't ask for or agree to your services.

In Vienna they get paid as amean to get beggars out of hotspots. Sad but true.

So if you're neurotic you'll (likely) be noise-intolerant, but that does not imply the inverse -- that being noise-intolerant means you're neurotic.

Nice subjective observation. My own: some of the most intelligent people I know are easily distracted by noise; other highly intelligent people that I know are not.

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