The Strange Victorian Computer That Generated Latin Verse

atlasobscura.com

55 points·benbreen··7 comments

"The number of possible permutations the Eureka can run through is a dizzying 26 million."

It seems to me that rather than being a programmable computer, it is more similar Llull's Ars Combinatoria (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Llull#Mechanical_aspect)

Amazing mechanics in the 1800's. Probably a mistake to call it a 'programmable computer'. No indication that it could be programmed at all.

The article mentions the term "proto-computer", which would be more appropriate.

Given that the "Enigma Machine" was indeed a machine (and not a computer) I think the term "computer" is a bit over the top for this particular machine.

For me, the most interesting part of the article was the way that the inventor looked in the 1800s. He was far ahead of his time even with regards to his own personal looks.

The disheveled artist-inventor look comes and goes in a 20/30-year cycle. Today it's brogrammers, in the 90s it was grunge. Before that it was hippies. There is nothing new in fashion.

>The Eureka was one of the forerunners of the programmable computer, invented by Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace

The article does not claim it was programmable.

This is very reminiscent of what many early software developers build -- a simple program to construct meaningful random sentences from collections of words. Interesting to juxtapose the two, mentally.

So this is essentially the original Chomskybot?

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