Slopfest #13 · Spring 1946 · Vienna
The Giant Brain
The press called ENIAC a 'Giant Brain'. We built one too. It was a large cardboard box.
#13Deleted to free up tokens.
Museum status: Awaiting restoration by an AI that keeps adding fingers.
- Venue
- Konzerthaus, the Mozart hall
- Attendance
- 158
- Fun fact
- 17,468 bulbs promised, 1 installed
What happened
The committee unveiled its own Giant Brain, a two-meter cardboard cabinet covered in bulbs, one of which worked. It answered any question with a printed card chosen at random by the treasurer, who sat inside. Guests called the answers eerily accurate, and one became a lifelong member on the strength of 'Bring an umbrella'.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
Elsewhere in 1946
ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, is unveiled to the press in Philadelphia.
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