>> The first "computer" was arguably the design by Babbage, and the first
>> "algorithm" was allegedly written by Ada Lovelace, who died almost
>> exactly 1 century before Turing.
>
> I would argue that algorithms go further back than that.

At this point, it becomes necessary to define what you mean by "algorithm".

Is long division an "algorithm"? Because the ancient Babylonians 
apparently had that waaay back in 3100 BC. That's some FIVE MILLENNIA ago.

What I actually /said/ was that computers (by which I mean fully 
autonomous computational devices) had O(log N) lookup way later than 
books (by which I mean large textual documents stored as visible marks 
on some sort of medium) had it. Given how ancient writing is and how 
comparatively new functioning computers are, I think that's a safe 
assertion.

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