Chapter 931 A groundbreaking invention
...Difference Engine?
Aiwass was stunned for a moment.
It’s not because he doesn’t know…quite the contrary, it’s because he knows too much.
The knowledge from the two worlds overlapped, making Aiwas's brain a little confused for a moment.
In another world, Charles Babbage was a British inventor. He invented a machine that could process and calculate complex data, and the results could be printed directly. This machine was called the Difference Engine.
The so-called "differentiation" refers to converting complex calculations in function tables into differential calculations, replacing squares with additions. He even designed another more complex machine—a programmable general-purpose computer called the Analytical Engine. This concept can be said to be the forerunner of the modern computer.
At that time, the prototype of the Difference Engine had been completed, but the large-scale version could not be completed due to technological limitations... Because of this, the British government believed that this machine was a pure waste of money and stopped funding it.
As a result, a hundred years later, when the technological precision had improved, people discovered that Babbage's drawings were actually correct.
In this world's Avalon, there was a person with the same name at about the same time, but they took completely different paths.
Charles Babbage, the alchemist of Avalon, was born in 1791. At that time, Queen Sophia had not yet ascended the throne, and Avalon was still in the era of King Tudor III, the Hanged King.
Charles grew up in an atmosphere of terror and witnessed how extraordinary people from other paths were caught by those iron gloves.
The school Charles later attended was the Royal Law University, and old Moriarty was a contemporary of him, probably only a few years apart.
Later, when he went to study in the Church, he learned from Cardinal Loki about mathematics and astronomy, which were not taught in Avalon, and met Professor Moriarty, who was still a student. However, unlike James, he was not retained by Cardinal Loki and returned to Avalon after completing his study abroad.
From then on, Charles and James maintained a long-term friendship. Julia once found Charles's manuscript in his study, which was also an opportunity for Aiwass to get to know this man.
During the reign of Queen Sophia, Avalon revived the path of balance and issued a standard product combining the paths of balance and authority - credit-based banknotes.
For this reason, in addition to the "white coin" symbolizing the Silver Crown Dragon and the "red coin" symbolizing the Candlestick, Avalon's currency also has the "copper coin" symbolizing the Sand Clock.
It was also because Avalon revived alchemy and tried to train its own alchemists... Babbage also came into contact with alchemy at that time.
But speaking of it...
"…the alchemy of the path of balance, and the astrology of the path of adaptation?"
Aiwass murmured softly, and suddenly thought of something.
Avalon lacked its own alchemy tradition, and the Theocracy placed too much emphasis on inheritance rules and was therefore unwilling to teach Avalon's Great Tree Alchemy. Consequently, they could only purchase numerous books from the Theocracy and Star Antimony, and then develop their own techniques from scratch.
Babbage was the first generation alchemist in Avalon.
Better than Dai Ying in the other world, Avalon didn't cut his funding. Babbage always had ample funds to study "alchemy." However, he was clearly gradually going in the wrong direction...
At that time, the knight class of Avalon most desired alchemical pharmaceutical technology that was close to "chemistry". At that time, whether it was dyes, fuels, or various practical alchemical mixtures, they were completely dependent on imports, which was extremely dangerous.
As for machinery—these country knights' understanding of machinery primarily consisted of "mechanical horses" and "guns," with an "elevator" thrown in at most. Because of this, these things were not taken seriously.
Despite having ample funding, Babbage encountered a similar problem—insufficient craftsmanship. Fortunately, this world offered another solution... which was to purchase large quantities of precisely engineered parts directly from Star Antimony.
Later, Celestial Empire learned about this and invited Babbage to settle down or study abroad in Celestial Empire, but Babbage declined after fortune-telling.
Later, Babbage received many private invitations from the Alchemy Society. He did not accept them and handed these letters to the Round Table Hall, warning them that the Star Antimony people were stealing Avalon's scholars - but the Round Table Hall had already had people from the Star Antimony infiltrated.
Later, Babbage suddenly died at home for no apparent reason.
Because traces of transcendence were detected at the scene, it was eventually determined to be the work of the folk curse society "Scaleless Hand" during the Hanged King era, which later became "Noble Red".
At that time, Queen Sophia also wanted to arrange someone to take over Babbage's work.
But because Babbage had gone so far down this path, no one could take over.
Later, because Xingti agreed in a negotiation meeting and was willing to export more advanced automatic tabulating machines to Avalon, the research on this technology was abandoned.
This new machine from Star Antimony was not only cheaper and more efficient, but also much smaller in size. Even the noise, error and vibration during operation were much smaller... so much so that people subconsciously thought that this was a more advanced version of the machine that Babbage was studying.
After all, Mr. Babbage was only a second-level alchemist at that time.
——The opponent is the Star Antimony Royal Alchemy Association, which has a fifth-level alchemist!
Isn't that definitely better than the beggar's version we invented ourselves?
That's what the Avalonians thought at the time.
"But when I found an abandoned automatic tabulating machine and planned to take it apart to study it, I suddenly realized something was wrong."
Yulia said seriously, "Because this machine is actually driven by magic! It has obvious traces of enchantment from the path of wisdom..."
This girl, who is as delicate and transparent as a snow elf, is now full of vitality.
Her pupils were bright and her eyes were sparkling.
"And I clearly remember... the drawings of the 'Difference Engine' I saw at home when I was a child didn't depict any magic arrays at all. It was purely machine-driven—a model even more 'demystified' than this machine!"
The fundamental power of the balanced path comes from disenchantment.
The more things you can do without using the power of the Tao, and the more extraordinary powers of other Taos you can simulate, the more balancing power you can obtain.
Aiwass asked, "Did you realize then that this machine could change the times?"
"……No."
Julia shook her head slightly, then turned back and lovingly touched the machine she had built. "Actually, I'm still not sure. I only know... if this machine, which is already more than half completed, is not completed, Mr. Babbage's achievements will be lost in history and no one will know about it.
“I’m the only one who’s aware of this right now, so this is my mission.”
"...Did it succeed?"
"nature."
Yulia smiled and said, "The technology today is completely different from what it was a few decades ago... even a third-level alchemist is different from a second-level one."
She said, picking up a part at random.
The part changed shape and texture at will in her hands.
"I have received complete instruction in Star Antimony Alchemy, and among all the alchemical traditions, Star Antimony Alchemy is the most proficient in metal transformation. Now I have reached the point where I can do whatever I want...
"Whether it's preparing alloys of varying proportions as needed, drawing metal wire down to millimeters, or manufacturing parts of varying sizes, all it takes is a thought, and it doesn't even require much mana."
Yulia said with some sadness, "If Mr. Babbage could have done this back then, instead of just learning alchemy from books... perhaps this groundbreaking invention would have been completed long ago, and there would have been no need to purchase parts from Star Antimony.
"Then Avalon might have had another pioneer, and perhaps even the entire history would have changed...
"The Star Antimony people were probably jealous of his talent and had to kill him. They also immediately exported more advanced machines to Avalon to prevent us from restarting this research."
“…Not necessarily.”
Aiwass said softly, "They hope we can't prove this is true. But the people who did it may not be the Star Antimony people... Otherwise, you wouldn't have the manuscript at all."
"Then why..."
"...Or perhaps it's because history would be changed as a result of this that he can't do it."
Alchemy - This skill belongs to Huantiansi.
Therefore, he was able to understand all the developments in alchemy and strictly control the development of this era through this means. All of this was to make the world move in the direction he expected.
Because Huan Tiansi wanted to escape this world at the end of this reincarnation, if nothing unexpected happened... this reincarnation should be the last. In the past reincarnations, perhaps he would increase the variables as much as possible, but this time he would minimize the variables.
……snort.
You may not be able to fit in with the source of change...
This thought floated through Aiwas' mind.
His grandfather Jacob was suspected to be an apostle of the Ring Sky Division... and if this belief had been formed since early on, perhaps the official investigation results of Avalon were not wrong.
The person who killed Babbage was really the "Scaleless Hand"!
And the person who took action at that time might have been Jacob.
Aiwass shook his head slightly to dispel the distracting thoughts in his mind.
He looked at Yulia and changed the subject: "So... Yuli, what optimization did you make?"
"I am optimizing the 'Analytical Engine' principle based on another manuscript by Mr. Babbage. However, I have encountered many problems..."
At this point, Yulia immediately put aside the question of "Who killed Babbage?" and her eyes lit up immediately: "There are several problems that need to be solved. One is the problem of computing efficiency, and the other is the problem of output efficiency. And the most critical problem, I think, is 'input'.
"The Griffin gave me inspiration on this question—electricity is very fast, and Star Antimony already has mature electrical transportation and storage technology. The electric lights that have become popular in Avalon are a good example.
"Look, opening the switch means it's connected, closing it means it's closed. This actually sends a signal... Um, brother, you might not understand..."
"It's okay, I understand."
Aiwass interrupted: "Go on."
When he heard half of it, he was already shocked.
He vaguely realized what Yulia was tinkering with - if she really figured this thing out, then he would really get the pioneer spot.
Each of these pioneers is a world-renowned inventor, and also serves as a spokesperson and agent for Sand Timepieces. Their presence signifies that Sand Timepieces is driving the development of our times.
Sure enough, everything happened just as Aiwass expected...
Yulia continued, "I've also noticed something else—some of the mathematicians' research is meaningless, purely to flatter the Sand Clock. Or perhaps... to show respect for the Sand Clock."
"That includes 'binary'.
"It originally came from the worship of the sand clock, which led to the invention of a calculation model that uses 'black and white', 'yes and no', 'up and down', and 'yin and yang' to govern everything. This means that 'everything is two' and the entire world is constructed from the flow of yes and no.
"And this 'yes or no' can be accomplished with electric current. This creates a high-speed current pulse... which can quickly input a string of complex numbers."
Yulia looked at the huge, terrifying machine flowing with electricity: "I hope that it can eventually become a machine that 'calculates the answers to all questions'... It would be best if it could be accomplished solely with the power of the Path of Balance.
"If that were the case, many people wouldn't have to work so hard in the future."
Update completed meow!
Today's update has a lot of words so I can't finish writing it by 12 o'clock——
(End of this chapter)
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