[[CHARLES BABBAGE stands among his devices.]]
BABBAGE: My latest calculations on the DIFFERENCE ENGINE have proven my theories! I think this old hunk of bolts could really work!
[[One of his associates, let's say JOSEPH CLEMENT, joins Babbage.]]
CLEMENT: Oh, Babbage! If so, you could revolutionize the world! COMPUTING MACHINES could completely change the way we live!
CLEMENT: Why, if they were commonplace, they might enable commerce! Communication! Information storage to a degree we can scarcely imagine!
BABBAGE: All your FRIVOLOUS pursuits be DASHED! I did NOT invent this so a body might GOSSIP WITH STRANGERS, or BOOK STEAMSHIP TRAVEL REMOTELY!
BABBAGE: This is a device, solely and exclusively, to AUTOMATE THE GAME OF SOLITAIRE.
CLEMENT: But Babbage--! What if one wanted to simulate the sweeping of a field for mines?
BABBAGE: Well of COURSE one might also use it for THAT.
{{header: the purpose of WONDERMARK.COM}}
''Use it to get WORK done?? Ha, ha, my boy, no. You misunderstand severely. This is a device for reading nonsense top-10 lists designed only to sell your attention to advertisers. It's a device to PREVENT you from working.''
The computers tell me it was 20 years ago, June 9, 2006, that I arrived in New York for my first-ever comic convention as an exhibitor, MoCCA.
It was an important trip for me, a milestone in what would go on to become my career.
I wrote a little reminiscence on Patreon (free/unlocked) — including a first-since-then reprint of the photocomics I made at the time, documenting the trip!
Read the rest here: [ 20 Years Ago (In Photocomic Form) ]
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