1. Introduction

2. Antecedents and empirical observations

3. Development

4. Conclusions and open problems

1. Introduction

In the computer field there are a lot of facts that remain unexplainable despite the high level of our scientific knowledge.

Examples of unexplainable facts in the computer field are:

• programs that have always run correctly, some day an execution error appears; after a deep analysis of the programs to find the error, no bug appears and when they are again executed they run again without problems.
• a computer is running correctly; an error appears in some device but it disappears when the system is re-started.

An interdisciplinary theory combining history, computer science and mathematics will be proposed in order to give a reasonable explanation to the above kind of facts.

(return)

2. Antecedents and empirical observations

It is an historically verified fact that the British nobles, when they die without eradicating their enemies, become ghosts haunting their castles until they succeed to win or to humiliate a descendent of their enemies.

Around the year 1830, Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine with the same structure than the Von Neumann computer. Unfortunately the mechanical technology of that time avoided the project realization.

His assistant and companion, countess Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, considered as the first programmer, could not realize her willing of executing some of the programs she wrote.

In consequence we have two nobles who died without winning their enemies, in this case the computer and its programs.

The evolution of countess Lovelace phantom is well known as the ADA language.

We must discover where is the Charles Babbage phantom.

(return)

3. Development

Let B be the set of all the bits stored in all the memories of a computer.

The above facts show that there are evolutions of the bits stored in the computer memories neither scheduled nor desired.

Let a be the application of B in B expressing these neither scheduled nor desired bit evolutions.

B = aB

What other factors have any influence in the above mentioned application ?

This transformation must be in such a way that the error is transparent to the error detecting and correcting mechanisms existing in the computer hardware.

So, the inverse application a-1, applied on the original bit set B, restores it in its apparently safe state and obviously it must influence the application.

In consequence, we can represent this observation like

B = aB (Ba-1)

The gravity constant g must also have an influence because we are faced to a problem of constant gravity.

In consequence, we can write

B = aB (Ba-1,g)

Number e must also appear because:

• it is the numbering base that minimizes the information representation.
• it is the base to study the stochastic processes.

In consequence, we can write

B = aB (Ba-1,g,e)

Arrived to this point it is clearly seen the reason of the unexplainable computer problems:

B = aB (Ba-1,g,e)

The Charles Babbage's ghost (or devil or phantom) is installed in his castle (the computer) trying to revenge of his enemies (the technology that he was not able to use) and he will continue until he will satisfy his thirst for revenge.

In consequence we can state that all computers have associated a Babbage's devil acting in the following way:

• The Babbage's devil is inside each computer.
• The Babbage's devil is able to access all the bits stored in the computer memories.
• At random instants the Babbage's devil acts changing some of the bits in such a way that the transparency to the error detection and correction mechanisms is respected.
• The Babbage's devil behaves as a second order stochastic process.

(return)

4. Conclusions and open problems

The present work definitively demonstrates the existence of the Babbage's devil in the computers and his actuation rules.

The existence of the Babbage's devil allow a simple and clear explanation of facts that, until now, remained in the unexplainable domain.

Hot topics still to be addressed and that need a deeper experimentation are:

• a quantitative estimation of the influence of the gravity constant g in the Babbage's devil activity.
• a quantitative representation of the second order stochastic process that changes the bits stored in the computer memory.
• the colour, efficiency and number of the Babbage's devils existing in each computer.
• for how long the Babbage's devil will exist. Will it exist for ever ? or, will he have a limited existence ? (perhaps as long as the time he has been obliged to wait until he has begun his revenge).
• how to find a way to satisfy the Babbage's devil thirst of revenge.
• ......

So we see that there are a lot of suggestive problems to be urgently addressed and they are a domain of fascinating future researches.

(return)