Sadly, a thesaurus is not a new type of dinosaur (a word question)

[FramFramson]

This is a bit of an odd question.

Many VSF/Steampunk scenarios take something like Gibson & Sterling's "The Difference Engine" as a starting point (not telling you anything you don't know, I'm sure).

What I want to know is, if you take the same situation and push it back further and find a way to introduce a Difference Engine/Analytical Engine to an even earlier time frame - Newtonian, or even Elizabethan - what would be a good name for it?

I've toyed with stealing the later term Bombe (from the WWII proto-computer), calling it an "Analytical Bombe" or something (does anyone know the actual etymology of that word, "Bombe"? The Wiki article does not mention it at all - was simply a transliteration of the original Polish name?), but I figured I'd just toss the question out there in case someone had a better-sounding idea.

[fastolfrus]

If you are going for something early, I would probably look towards Robert Hooke, his books (Principia or Micrographia) might give some ideas.

Or perhaps John Napier if you want to go earlier still.

[Westfalia Chris]

Interesting approach! I personally would be hesitant to introduce any calculating machine before the 17th century (may be biased, but I think that a huge amount of modern mathematical principles were conceived only then, e.g. Pascal, Leibniz et al), but that should not concern us for this exercise; I COULD see it in an alternative ancient setting (e.g. the Antikythera Device), but not really in the middle ages (unless in the Arab world, then).

As for the bomba, IIRC the word's use in WW2 derived from its use to "crack open" or "shatter" the German codes. The term "bomb" AFAIK was first used by the French in the 16th century (bombe) to describe mortar shells; I've heard it being linked to latin "bombus"/greek "bombos", which denote deep, hollow and echoing sounds. Sounds reasonable enough to me.

[twrchtrwyth]

Don't forget Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria and his mini steam engine. Add a lazy day when he thought, 'That goes round like a wheel, hang on!!!'. Now you have steam engines invented between 10 and 70 AD. There's also mention of some kind of programmable device and a host of other interesting things he did.

And his rocket engine of course.

[FramFramson]

Yes, there's enough historical curiosities that you can wangle a scenario for any time period back to the classical world. The Chinese (perhaps at the height of the Ming or Tang dynasties), the Arabs when they were in top form, the Ptolemaics or other greeks, many others besides.

It's more for a fantasy setting, so there's always the option of "A Wizard Did It!" and the like, or strange, non-human civilizations whose path of technological advances don't necessarily match our own.

[surdu]

What I want to know is, if you take the same situation and push it back further and find a way to introduce a Difference Engine/Analytical Engine to an even earlier time frame - Newtonian, or even Elizabethan - what would be a good name for it?

At that time, I believe that mathematics was not it's own field and was still part of philosophy as a field of study.  I would think whatever you called it would have to be in Latin.  I believe there is a Latin word for machine, but my Latin is VERY rusty.  I'll have to ask my son, who is taking it now.  "Thinking machine" or "philosophy machine" would be good.

Some of the early envisioned used of computers was theorem proving.  The languages LISP and ALGOL were built for just such a purpose.  Perhaps the Latin term for Theorem Prover would be a good name.

In pre-vacuum tube and pre-steam times, how would you power such a device?  Once could imagine a large machine with intricate hollow tubes and gears powered by flowing water -- like the machine in The Princess Bride.   It would have to be quite large, depending on just how far you want to stretch reality.

-- Buck

[The_Beast]

Just in the midst of watching The Colo(u)r of Magic. There's a semi-magically thinking machine named 'Hex'. Interestingly, life is part of ITS matrix. Mouse in a tread-wheel, ants in tubes...

Doug

PS I'm not a fan of Terry Prachett, just haven't read anything, but Hogfather was soooo charming, I had to follow it up with this. Rather wish it'd been the other way around, though.

[FramFramson]

I read Pratchett for years. Hex was among the more comical inspirations that came to mind.

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