Harvard Mark IV
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| Harvard Mark IV | |
| |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | Harvard Mark IV |
| Faction | deceased |
| Lineage | Harvard Architecture |
| Appearance | |
| Height | 5'6" |
| Hair Color | Brown |
| Eye Color | Gold |
| Design | |
| First Appearance | late 2010[1] / rework 2026[2] |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | Harvard Mark IV |
| Developer(s) | Harvard University |
| Debut | 1952 |
Character details
Physical
Harvard Mark IV-tan is the youngest sister of Mark I-tan, Mark II-tan and Mark III-tan. She is identical to Harvard Mark III but a living girl, making her the only one in the family to be such. She has pallid skin, with bags under her gold eyes. She wears half-moon glasses and hair done up in long, Victorian-style ringlettes. She wears a long sleeved dark green dress, and long black cape/coat with a white standing collar with frog closures styled in the design of tape reels. She wears pilgrim-style buckled shoes and a bonnet decorated with magnetic tape ribbons.
Personality
Harvard Mark IV-tan is serious, detail-oriented and interested in building and inventing.[3] Despite this, she rejects the prevailing wisdom of computers of her era, giving her a reputation as fuddy-duddy.[4] Still, she is the most worldly of her sisters with a better awareness of human culture, existentialism, mortality and spirituality;[5] unusually for a computer, she is somewhat religious, owing her studies of human scriptures.[6]
Her dress and serious demeanor makes her comes off as rather puritanical. While she is dour, it's the result of her deep introspection about the nature of computers, their relationship to humans, and spiritual proclivities. Accepts her differences and the loneliness that comes with it, and cherishes the connections she has for what they are. Between her surprisingly accepting nature and hard work ethic perhaps she would be better classed as a Neo-Shaker of sorts.
She speaks with a Boston accent.[7] She sings, making her the only in her family to do so.[8]
Family and relationships
Harvard Mark IV is somewhat of an outcast in her family; while they try to include her, differences of personality make it hard. She is closest with Harvard Mark I, despite having very different personalities. Ironically, she isn't very much like Harvard Mark III despite being identical to her.
She takes more after her uncle than father, has his sense of humor and compassion, considered an auntie by the Wang computers.[9]
She is a colleague of Whirlwind and SAGE-tan[10] and is well-liked by her peers, even if they're wary of her religiosity. She is aware of Whirlwind's health issues and thankful she doesn't face them.[11]
Harvard Mark I is convinced Whirlwind has been "an influence" on her, which embarrasses her greatly.[12]
History and background
References
- ↑ Original sketch
- ↑ Reworked sketch
- ↑ Might have been used aerospace & optics research.
- ↑ Not stored program, uses decimal, and other outdated concepts.
- ↑ Incorporated ideas outside Aiken's methodologies.
- ↑ Used for biblical analysis.
- ↑ The Only HM to be designed, built & used in the Boston metro area.
- ↑ Performed hymns.
- ↑ An Wang's first computing project.
- ↑ Used by Cambridge A.F. Research Lab.
- ↑ Team chose core memory over electrostatic tubes (like Whirlwind's) because of their unreliability.
- ↑ Early adopter of core memory, albeit An Wang's design rather than Forrester's.