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Words: 7580 in 5 pages
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Illustrator: Ed Emsh
Transcriber's Note:
THE
Romantic Analogue
Illustrated by Ed Emsh
Mathematicians are just like people: old, young, fat, thin, male, female. This one was male, thirty-five, with steady brown eyes and a nice smile when he remembered to use it. His name was Norman Venner, and besides being a mathematical whiz generally, he had designed and built an electronic brain, or calculator, which was in some ways smarter than himself--and a lot less diffident.
Electronic calculators are invariably given acronymic names such as BINAC, SEAC, and MANIAC, and nine out of ten of them are of the digital type. This is a nice way of saying that they count on their fingers. They're nearly as big as yachts, and cost more, but can calculate a million times faster than any human.
Norm's machine was of the analogue type, which is less flexible, less complex, and vastly smaller and cheaper. He called it the ICWEA , which stood for "I Can Work 'Em All!" It could, too! It was especially good at deriving equations from curves, which was really something.
Charley Oglethorpe burst into the office one morning, catching Norm in a brown study. "Hi, Genius. How is she perking now?"
"All right, except the pen skips a little sometimes and makes a messy curve."
"Have to damp that arm better. When can I have her to work on?"
"Soon as I finish these Mugu problems."
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