Someone apparently never used calipers or slide rules.https://twitter.com/NegarestaniReza/status/1248950988695842820 …
-
-
-
Replying to @NegarestaniReza
Calipers provide the input for, and slide rules perform analog computation. The history of computing didn't start with computers.
2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @oliverbeige @NegarestaniReza
The Antikythera Mechanism, for instance, is an orrery that dates from ca. 100 BC. An orrery is a computer, even if analogue.
2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes -
And programmable textile looms, which date from the 1720s, are also computers in the precise sense that they transform information inputs into mechanical actions which, when then executed by the loom, change the material world. Also analogue.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @PeterVeep @oliverbeige
Yes, I agree with your observations, but you seem to forget that the logic behind the digital does not essentially bottom at binarism. It is the logic of rule-bound mechanizable elementary acts. This is what I mean by digital in the context put forward by theoretical computer sci
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @NegarestaniReza @oliverbeige
But “rule-bound mechanizable elementary acts“ describes precisely the operations of both the Antikythera Mechanism and the programmable looms of the 18th & 19th centuries. They are not binary & they predate computer science. I am missing something in your argument.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @PeterVeep @oliverbeige
Yes, but why do you think by digital I essentially mean binary? By digital I mean any numeric-system with terminating computing functions. Digital > Binary
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @NegarestaniReza @oliverbeige
Ok, but please tell me what numeric system is the Antikythera Mechanism using? Or a Jacquard loom? Those devices are analogue, not digital, not even by your definition of ”digital”.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
Yes, all great but then you can only accurately talk about them in terms of computation if you model them on numeric systems and computational complexity. otherwise, you can talk about so many other things as computers hence the unsavory threats of pancomputationalism.
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.