
Rethinking the Origins of the Lock - emhart
http://schuylertowne.com/research/rethinking-the-origins-of-the-lock
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abecedarius
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.

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ggchappell
> 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.

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abecedarius
Good point! I feel embarrassed. Thanks.

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

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JacobAldridge
Never feel embarrassed for asking a great question!

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ggchappell
Agreed.

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contingencies
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...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/schuyler/lockpicks-by-open-
locksport/posts)

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frozenport
Cleverly disguised to appeal to my interst in concurrent programming.

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

