Rethinking the Origins of the Lock

http://schuylertowne.com/research/rethinking-the-origins-of-the-lock

by emhart • 11 years ago

48 10 11 years ago

abecedarius3• 11 years ago

Something I've wondered: is the lock the first machine to do a discrete, conditional action? That'd make it a kind of ancestor to digital computers, before various automata and then Jacquard and Babbage.

Feedback control goes back to the first millennium BC, too, but that seems more like analog computing.

ggchappell2• 11 years ago

is the lock the first machine to do a discrete, conditional action?

Interesting question.

I would guess that the answer is "no". Animal traps based on some kind of triggered action probably predated the keyed lock.

abecedarius3• 11 years ago

Good point! I feel embarrassed. Thanks.

(Maybe the lock could still get credit for the logical AND?)

bandrami• 11 years ago

That might be the screw (hold if push, moved if twisted). Though I suppose a screw could be seen as a very basic kind of lock.

abecedarius3• 11 years ago

Interesting point of view -- I hadn't thought of it that way. It seems to be a more recent invention, though.

frozenport• 11 years ago

Cleverly disguised to appeal to my interst in concurrent programming.

CurtMonash• 11 years ago

My first thought on reading the headline was to think this would be about database technology ...

contingencies• 11 years ago

Come on, if you have time to write this why don't you finish the picks you owe us? It's been half a decade already. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/schuyler/lockpicks-by-o...

Rethinking the Origins of the Lock

Related Stories