Comment Re:Meh.... (Score 1) 218
I think you confuse the point of building a Difference Engine from LEGO.
It was not built in mockery of the original to somehow be useful to compute lower order polynomials. It was built as a serious effort to see how far I could push the limits of a plastic construction toy.
The real Babbage machine is a wonder of any age. The LEGO one, not so much. But it certainly makes people think and it certainly encourages a sense of wonder of what can be accomplished with ordinary things when you set your mind to it.
It was not built in mockery of the original to somehow be useful to compute lower order polynomials. It was built as a serious effort to see how far I could push the limits of a plastic construction toy.
The real Babbage machine is a wonder of any age. The LEGO one, not so much. But it certainly makes people think and it certainly encourages a sense of wonder of what can be accomplished with ordinary things when you set your mind to it.