What would you do with a spare $640,000? John Graham-Cunning would build a steam-powered computer invented in the 1830s. And instead of waiting around for this mysterious spare money to show up, he's started soliciting donations. The plan: Raise the money by January 2011, build the analytical engine from Charles Babbage's original design, then donate the machine to a museum. Graham-Cunning knows this idea sounds crazy, but it won't deter him, as he wrote in an article for the O'Reilly Radar:
It might seem a folly to want to build a gigantic, relatively puny computer at great expense 170 years after its invention. But the message of a completed Analytical Engine is very clear: it's possible to be 100 years ahead of your own time.
