Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 1: Pre-Modern Era (Pre-1850)
1642
Blaise Pascal Builds the Pascaline

It was the first mechanical calculator made in quantity, performing addition and subtraction with an automatic carry between digits. Using a series of gears and wheels, the calculator revolutionized mathematics and engineering, paving the way for further development of machines that could perform more complex calculations. Pascal’s calculator was mentioned in the catalog of Cybernetic Serendipity as an important moment in the history of cybernetics.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.
Sources
People
Movements
cybernetics, Computing Machinery
Filed under
- Ideas
- computation, engineering, mathematics
- Technologies
- cybernetics, mechanical calculator, Pascaline
- People
- Blaise Pascal
- Exhibitions
- Cybernetic Serendipity
Related moments
Echoes across time
- 1951 · The Ferranti Mark I Is the First Commercially Available Electronic Computer
- 1951 · Edmund C. Berkeley Begins Publishing Computers and Automation
- 1958 · Jack St. Clair Kilby at Texas Instruments and, independently, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Arrive at the Integrated Circuit
Le Random editorials
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 1—Pre-Modern Era with Marius Watz — listen with transcript on Le Random (06 Jul 2023, 46 min). Chapter 1’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify