Editing Analytical engine (section)

=== Predicted influence ===
Babbage understood that the existence of an automatic computer would kindle interest in the field now known as [[algorithmic efficiency]], writing in his ''Passages from the Life of a Philosopher'', "As soon as an analytical engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of the science. Whenever any result is sought by its aid, the question will then arise—By what course of calculation can these results be arrived at by the machine in the ''shortest time''?"{{sfn|Babbage|1864|p=137}}