When thinking about binary code, I like to recall that the first successful punch cards, and indeed the reason we made punch cards for 20th century computers, were the patterns for weaving on jacquard looms in the 1700s. The cards were huge, and all tied together to make a loop, which is how you got a repeating pattern in the weave. This was entirely mechanical, long before electricity was a useful concern -- but when you can reduce your options to a series of yes/no questions (like, which heddles are up/down on any given throw of the shuttle), you can "compute" a pattern in fabric.
Same idea: * knitting machines, which lift/depress hooks that hold each loop of yarn * wind-up music boxes, which use tiny steel pins on a round drum * player pianos, which use paper punch rolls rather than cards tied together
You'll never get a player piano to play it "again, but this time with feeling" -- that's the part only a human can do -- but it will play reliably!
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2025-01-29 12:34 am (UTC)Same idea:
* knitting machines, which lift/depress hooks that hold each loop of yarn
* wind-up music boxes, which use tiny steel pins on a round drum
* player pianos, which use paper punch rolls rather than cards tied together
You'll never get a player piano to play it "again, but this time with feeling" -- that's the part only a human can do -- but it will play reliably!