"A fire shall issue
from the heavens, and all
shall crumble to echoing screams. "
Timex/Sinclair 1000 Owner's Manual,
p.1547

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This is a skeletal record of the first computer* known to man.
The Timex/Sinclair 1000 was a device conceived of early in the eighth decade of the nineteenth century AD. It could be obtained in trade for a mere 100 monetary units, or "dollars". The device was named for its creator, the late "Uncle" Clive Sinclair, inventor of the pocket calculator. In a tribute of the ultimate respect and gratitude, the natives of his planet encased his body in a shell of solid platinum over eight feet thick. His device (called a "computer") had the capacity to remember, or "store" as many as sixteen THOUSAND digital values, called "bits" in its electronic brain.
Although perfectly content to operate on its own, the T/S 1000 allowed its master to "tap its mind" by connecting an electrode from it to the nearest tele-viewing window. With the aid of an external enhancement device, the computer's memory could be loaded with widsoms contained on great spools of micro-thin synthetic tape, impregnated with electro-magnetic particles. Conversely, the computer could regurgitate this same data back onto a format legible by the less evolved humans- a spooling text imprinter which marked scrolls of a highly refined papyrus-like material.
The T/S 1000 allowed its master to transform himself into a cunning bridge-player, a chess grandmaster, an aircraft commander or a world leader through mind bending illusions, called "simulations". Through the loss of knowledge and imagination with the ages, such metamohoses are no longer possible. The T/S 1000's creators knew that the machine's great powers would be envied. There would be those, through ignorance and jealousy, who would seek to destroy its fragile computerized brain. Therefore, the device was encased in a hard, chitinous shell which would resist blunt impact. Additionally, it was given a seamless data-input surface which would resist any liquids thrown by zealots or villains. The machine was also impervious to the many innate failings which plague today's machines: hard-drive crashes, computer viruses and Y-2K clock misalignment. Mysteriously, at the stroke of midnight, August 33rd, 1987, every remaining Timex/Sinclair 1000 Superbrain disappeared from the face of the earth. There is a persisting belief (or faith) that these machines all sprouted wings and took flight from their owners (see woodblock print below). Some say they went to a landfill somewhere in Pittsburgh. But others believe they went to another world, a land of grace and beauty, of ether and silicon, where mystical birds and heavenly bodies fill their circuits with joy above joys. But a disturbing prophecy has been.... prophesized. Each of the T/S computers is said to have gained an intelligence which surpasses the sum of all men. It is said they are now able to focus analog energy into pure, destructive lances which melt concrete and pulverize Lucite. It is said that they are displeased with the humans who shamefully left them in closets and on garage floors. It is said that they will return.... (to Earth)
*There have been several others to make prior claims of having built a computer, from Charles Babbage to Steve Wozniak, all of whom have been disproven as hoaxes. |
(c) 1999 James.Hakola