Pastor's Tantra

...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 overlap of knowledge from the two worlds made Aiwass's brain temporarily confused.

In another world, Charles Babbage was a British inventor. He invented a machine that can be used for complex data processing and calculations. The calculation results can be printed directly. The name of this machine is called a difference engine.

The so-called "difference" refers to converting the complex operations of the function table into difference calculations, and using addition to replace square calculations. He even designed another, more complex machine—a programmable general-purpose computer called the Analytical Engine. This idea can be said to be the predecessor of modern computers.

At that time, the prototype of the difference engine had been produced, but the large version could not be completed due to process limitations... Because of this, the British government believed that this machine was a pure waste of money and stopped funding it.

As a result, when the accuracy of the craftsmanship improved a hundred years later, people discovered that Babbage's drawings were actually correct.

In Avalon in this world, there was a person with the same name at about the same time. But they took completely different paths.

Charles Babbage, alchemist of Avalon, born in 1791. At that time, Queen Sophia had not yet succeeded to the throne, and Avalon was still the era of the Hanged King Tudor III.

Charles grew up in an atmosphere of terror since he was a child and witnessed how extraordinary people of other paths were caught by those iron gloves.

The school that Charles later attended was the Royal University of Law, and old Moriarty was from the same era as him, probably within a few years.

Because when he later went to study abroad in the Theocratic Country to learn mathematics and astronomy that were not taught in Avalon from Cardinal Loki, he met Professor Moriarty, who was still a student. But unlike James, he was not retained by Cardinal Loki, but returned to Avalon after his study abroad period expired.

From then on, Charles and James remained friends for a long time. Yulia also found Charles' manuscript in the study, which was also an opportunity for Aiwass to get to know this man.

During the era of Queen Sophia, Avalon revived the Balanced Path and released credit-based banknotes, a standard product combining the Balanced and Authoritative Paths.

It is for this reason that in Avalon's currency, in addition to the "white coins" symbolizing the silver-crowned dragon and the "red coins" symbolizing the candlestick, there are "copper coins" symbolizing the sand timepiece.

It was precisely because Avalon revived alchemy and tried to cultivate its own alchemists... Babbage also came into contact with alchemy at that time.

But, speaking of it...

"...The alchemy of balancing the path, and the astrology of adapting to the path?"

Aiwass murmured in a low voice, suddenly thinking of something.

Avalon does not have its own alchemical inheritance, and the Theocracy attaches too much importance to inheritance rules, so it is unwilling to teach Avalon's giant tree alchemy. So they could only buy a large number of books from the Theocracy and Star Antimony, and then develop from scratch.

Babbage was the first alchemist of Avalon.

What's better than Daiying in another world is that Avalon has not cut off his funding. Babbage always had ample funds for research on "alchemy". But he obviously gradually went in the wrong direction...

At that time, what the knights of Avalon wanted most was the kind of alchemy and 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 very dangerous.

As for machinery - the understanding of machinery by these country knights is mainly "mechanical horses" and "firearms", plus an "elevator" at most. Because of this, these things are not taken seriously.

Although he had enough funds, Babbage also encountered a similar problem-insufficient process accuracy. But fortunately, there is another solution in this world... that is to purchase a large number of parts with sufficient precision directly from Star Antimony.

Later, Xing Antimony found out about this and invited Babbage to settle or study abroad in Xing Antimony. But Babbage rejected the idea after doing his own divination.

Later, Babbage also received many private invitations from the Alchemical Society. He did not agree, and gave these letters to the Round Table Hall, warning them that the Star Antimony people were stealing scholars of Avalon - however, there were already people in the Round Table Hall who had been infiltrated by the Star Antimony.

Later, Babbage suddenly died at home for no apparent reason.

At that time, Queen Sophia also wanted to arrange for someone to take over Babbage's work.

But because Babbage went so far down this path, no one could take over.

Later, because Star Antimony relented during a negotiation meeting and were willing to export more advanced automatic tabulating machines to Avalon, the research on this technology was abandoned.

This new machine from Star Antimony is not only lower in price and more efficient, but also much smaller in size. It even produces much less noise, error, and vibration during operation...so much so that people subconsciously think that , a more advanced version of the kind of machine Babbage was working on.

After all, Mr. Babbage was only a second-level alchemist at that time.

——The opposite side is the Star Antimony King Alchemy Association with its 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, I suddenly realized something was wrong."

Yulia said seriously: "Because this machine is actually driven by magic! There are obvious traces of enchantment on the path of wisdom in it..."

This girl, as delicate and transparent as a snow elf, is now full of vitality.

Her pupils were bright and her eyes sparkled.

"And I clearly remember... the 'difference engine' drawings I saw at home when I was a child did not depict the magic circle at all. It was a pure machine drive - a more 'disenchanted' mode 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 path, and the more extraordinary powers of other paths you can simulate, the more balanced power you can get.

Aiwass asked: "Did you realize at that time that this machine could change the times?"

"……No."

Yulia shook her head slightly, turned back and touched the machine she had built with her own hands lovingly: "Actually, I'm still not sure yet. I only know...if this machine, which is more than half completed, is not completed, Mr. Babbage's achievements will be lost in history from now on, and no one will know about it.

"I'm the only one who realizes this right now, so that's my mission."

"...Did it succeed?"

"nature."

Yulia smiled and said: "Today's technology is completely different from decades ago... The third-level alchemist is also different from the second-level alchemist."

She said, picking up a part at random.

The parts changed shape and texture in her hands as she pleased.

"Whether it is to prepare alloys of different proportions according to needs, or to draw metal wires as fine as millimeters, or to manufacture parts required by different models, all it takes is a thought, and it doesn't even require much mana."

Yulia said with some sadness: "If Mr. Babbage could do this, instead of learning alchemy by himself from reading books... maybe this era-changing invention would have been completed long ago, and there would be no need to learn alchemy from the stars. Antimony purchased parts from there.

“At that time, there may be one more pioneer in Avalon, and maybe even the entire history will change because of this...

"I'm afraid the Star Antimony people had to kill him because they were jealous of his talent. They also immediately exported more advanced machines to Avalon just to prevent us from restarting this research."

"...Not necessarily."

Aiwass said softly: "They hope that we can't find out that this is true. But the person who did it may not be the Star Antimony people...otherwise, you won't be able to get this manuscript at all."

"Then why..."

"...Maybe it's because the entire history will change because of this, so he can't do it."

Alchemy - This skill belongs to Huan Tiansi.

Therefore, he was able to understand all the developments of alchemy, and in this way strictly controlled the development of this era. All this is to make the world move in the direction he wants.

Because Huan Tiansi wants to escape from this world at the end of this reincarnation. If nothing else happens... this reincarnation should be the last one. In past reincarnations, perhaps he would try to increase the variables as much as possible, but this time he would try to reduce the variables as much as possible.

……snort.

You may not be very suitable for the source of change...

This thought came to Aiwass's mind.

His grandfather Jacob was suspected to be an apostle of the Huantian Division... and if this belief had been formed from the early days, perhaps Avalon's official investigation results were not wrong.

The person who killed Babbage was truly a "hand without scales"!

And the person who took action at that time might be Jacob.

Aiwass shook his head slightly to dispel the distracting thoughts in his mind.

He looked at Yulia and changed the subject: "So... Yulia, what is the optimization you are doing?"

"I am optimizing it based on the 'Analytical Engine' principle of another manuscript of Mr. Babbage. But I have encountered many problems..."

When Yulia said this, she immediately let go of the question "Who killed Babbage?" and her eyes immediately lit up: "There are several problems that need to be solved, one is the calculation efficiency problem, and the other is the output efficiency problem. . And the most critical issue, I think, is 'input'.

"On this issue, the Griffin gave me inspiration - 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 China Unicom, and closing the switch means shutting down. This actually sends a signal... Well, brother, you may not understand..."

"It's okay, I understand."

Aiwass interrupted: "Go on."

When he heard it halfway, he was already shocked.

He vaguely realized what Yulia was tinkering with - if she really figured it out, then she would indeed get the spot as a pioneer.

Each of the pioneers is a world-renowned great inventor, and is also the spokesperson and representative of sand timepieces. Their existence means that Sand Watch is taking action to promote the development of the times.

Sure enough, everything was as Aiwass expected...

Yulia continued, "And I also paid attention to another thing - in the research of mathematicians, there are some meaningless things that are purely for flattering the sand clock. Or... to show respect for the sand clock.

"Among them is 'binary'.

"It originally came from the worship of the sand clock, so the calculation mode of using 'black and white', 'yes and no', 'up and down', 'yin and yang' to govern everything was invented, which means 'everything is two', and the whole world is constructed from the flow of yes and no.

"And this 'existence or nothing' can be completed with electric current. In this way, a high-speed current pulse is formed... a string of complex numbers can be quickly input. "

Yulia looked at the huge, terrifying machine with electric current flowing: "I hope it can eventually become a machine that 'calculates the answers to all questions'... it is best to complete it only with the power of the balanced path.

"If that's the case, many people in the future won't have to work hard."