babbage
Original: babbage on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1: Caption: "In the early 19th century, Charles Babbage designed the world's first computer."
Charles Babbage (a man in 19th-century dress): "I call it the Analytical Engine."
Panel 2: Caption: "The original design even included a printer that could print sheets of numbers."
Babbage holds up a printed sheet.
Panel 3: Caption: "Sheets of numbers can be arranged to form images."
A grid of ones and zeros arranged so that the pattern forms a crude image (resembling a Pac-Man / arcade-style scene).
Panel 4: Caption: "This leads to one inescapable conclusion."
A woman, looking up in awe: "My God, in the series of numbers, Babbage makes an animation!"
Panel 5: Caption: "If you had a time machine, you could go back to 1850 and install Pac-Man."
An old man (Babbage) clutches his head, distressed: "I am pursued by spectres!"
A child nearby: "NO! MY!"
A woman watches.
Votey: A handwritten note that reads:
"Dear Stupid Rich:
Please build one.
<3
nerds everywhere"
Charles Babbage (a man in 19th-century dress): "I call it the Analytical Engine."
Panel 2: Caption: "The original design even included a printer that could print sheets of numbers."
Babbage holds up a printed sheet.
Panel 3: Caption: "Sheets of numbers can be arranged to form images."
A grid of ones and zeros arranged so that the pattern forms a crude image (resembling a Pac-Man / arcade-style scene).
Panel 4: Caption: "This leads to one inescapable conclusion."
A woman, looking up in awe: "My God, in the series of numbers, Babbage makes an animation!"
Panel 5: Caption: "If you had a time machine, you could go back to 1850 and install Pac-Man."
An old man (Babbage) clutches his head, distressed: "I am pursued by spectres!"
A child nearby: "NO! MY!"
A woman watches.
Votey: A handwritten note that reads:
"Dear Stupid Rich:
Please build one.
<3
nerds everywhere"
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic about Charles Babbage's 19th-century Analytical Engine. Panel 1: Babbage, in period dress, announces "I call it the Analytical Engine," with a caption noting he designed the world's first computer. Panel 2: caption says the design included a printer that could print sheets of numbers; Babbage holds a printed sheet. Panel 3: caption says sheets of numbers can be arranged to form images, shown as a grid of ones and zeros forming a crude Pac-Man-like picture. Panel 4: a woman looks up in awe and exclaims that in the series of numbers Babbage 'makes an animation.' Panel 5: caption suggests that with a time machine you could go back to 1850 and install Pac-Man; an aged, distressed Babbage clutches his head crying "I am pursued by spectres!" while a child says "NO! MY!" and a woman looks on. The joke: feeding modern arcade games to Babbage's printer would have looked like haunting ghosts to a Victorian. Votey: a handwritten note in cursive reads "Dear Stupid Rich: Please build one. <3 nerds everywhere" - a plea to wealthy people to actually fund building the Analytical Engine.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.