Rethinking the Origins of the Lock

abecedarius 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.

ggchappell 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.

abecedarius 11 years ago | | |

Good point! I feel embarrassed. Thanks.

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

JacobAldridge 11 years ago | | |

Never feel embarrassed for asking a great question!

ggchappell 11 years ago | | |

Agreed.

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.

abecedarius 11 years ago | | |

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

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...

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 ...