Post AzsgDotErw478su6ts by hattifattener@wandering.shop
(DIR) More posts by hattifattener@wandering.shop
(DIR) Post #AzsUruTkJIMQbpKW8W by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:20:32Z
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so I'm reading about early middle ages catholic law and the author of the book (in 1987) points out that the problem with all these various ad-hoc writings about what penance you should for for X sin or Y crime was that there was just too much writing to be able to access it all quickly when needed.
(DIR) Post #AzsV273kOGgKWV2Bzk by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:22:28Z
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now I want to write an alt-history (a la Peter Watts 'A Word for Heathens', where the church figures out electromagnetism a thousand years early) where the catholic church invents the computer so they can have databases of penitentials in the 10th century AD
(DIR) Post #AzsV5awRkHBY4PHPbU by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:23:15Z
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clockwork mainframes tended by innumerable nuns in holy service to The Word as Machine
(DIR) Post #AzsV8ycs90J2OVjkFU by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:23:44Z
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just fill out your sins on this punch card and we'll process your penance overnight
(DIR) Post #AzsVDs8vfuzBjg47ma by gsuberland@chaos.social
2025-11-03T19:24:41Z
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@foone I like to imagine this world also has a counterculture movement that invented the printing press centuries early for the sole purpose of distributing smut as a form of protest art against the puritanical hegemony
(DIR) Post #AzsVHdBTEaSmV22wam by agowa338@chaos.social
2025-11-03T19:24:47Z
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@foone Stone tablets!
(DIR) Post #AzsVJnkAwbqPpTJYI4 by epithumia@mstdn.social
2025-11-03T19:24:45Z
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@foone Akinator but for sins/penance?
(DIR) Post #AzsVRHQiyBzBvVmZOK by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:27:06Z
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really punch cards are all you need. you don't need a full computer. Index the various sins on punch cards, and with standard pre-computer selector/sorting mechanism you can quickly pull up the right documentation
(DIR) Post #AzsVZDb16mYaLuNjk0 by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:28:37Z
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I wonder how hard it would be to build mechanical punch card mechanisms with a waterwheel
(DIR) Post #AzsVcfpGbh6um4h8fA by Sylvhem@eldritch.cafe
2025-11-03T19:28:48Z
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@foone Some will argue that, in our history, Isidore of Seville made paper databases in the 7th Century. Hence why he is usually recognized as the the patron saint of computer science.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidore_of_Seville
(DIR) Post #AzsVovL4kuXUMWPl7Q by adriano@lile.cl
2025-11-03T19:30:46Z
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@foone Computers with punchcards are also extremely useful when you're a monk trying to sing the 9 billion names of god quickly, Clarke said.
(DIR) Post #AzsVs0rcfd3wMm6wro by jonhendry@iosdev.space
2025-11-03T19:30:53Z
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@foone Penances on a series of slide rules.
(DIR) Post #AzsVwMi3OHpzHHi7RA by Vanvidum@tiggi.es
2025-11-03T19:31:12Z
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@foone You should look up how they 'programmed' initial textile manufacturing machines!
(DIR) Post #AzsVzDglO0yYAXT5V2 by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:32:16Z
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@Vanvidum oh I'm aware, but Jacquard looms (and similar) are an 18th century thing, so this'd have to be way earlier
(DIR) Post #AzsW3HWB5iF5CgSBzE by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:32:46Z
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a bunch of monks in a monastery carefully copying out the bible onto new punch cards with a hand punch
(DIR) Post #AzsWEhciN89VLyxPTE by munin@infosec.exchange
2025-11-03T19:33:23Z
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@foone the city of Lowell, MA ran substantial industrial infrastructure off of water mills for many years; they were a major textiles hub for a good while. All the various weaving machines were water powered; they largely used (iirc) cloth and leather belts for power transmission. https://www.nps.gov/articles/lowell-handbook-waterpower.htm
(DIR) Post #AzsWEj4OzftTq8v2GW by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T19:35:59Z
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@munin very cool!
(DIR) Post #AzsWIIXRZzRGiDCqiO by silvermoon82@wandering.shop
2025-11-03T19:36:34Z
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@foone Carving filigree scenes into the first octet of each card like an illuminated capital.
(DIR) Post #AzsXs9lNmaUfsLO9Fg by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-11-03T19:54:20Z
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@foone imagine how different the order of inventions would be if text search was the first motivator ... they might invent regex centuries before calculus ...
(DIR) Post #AzsYtjQmkwHkk04MQy by foone@digipres.club
2025-11-03T20:05:45Z
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@llewelly LLMs before the internal combustion engine
(DIR) Post #AzsYx1penVOSgDH6WW by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-11-03T20:06:22Z
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@foone wow, religion and LLMs, that got dark fast
(DIR) Post #AzsgDotErw478su6ts by hattifattener@wandering.shop
2025-11-03T21:27:52Z
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@foone do not fold, spindle, mutilate, or deny the Holy Spirit
(DIR) Post #Azsir9N8qkg1rwlyLo by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-11-03T21:56:52Z
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@foone @Vanvidum right, but in your timeline jacquard looms would be an 8th century invention ... or something like that.
(DIR) Post #Azt3vmjsWdBO9tSWR6 by fishidwardrobe@mastodon.me.uk
2025-11-04T01:53:30Z
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@foone flashing back to my childhood. i had a "ladybird" early reader which described making such a system out of a cereal box and pencils. never did get around to building one, but i think my career was set at that point…