Talk:Brainiac

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This is probably ripe for splitting into two real articles and a (disambiguation) page. Any objections? Phil 16:13, Dec 12, 2003 (UTC)

did all the names really come from eniac? the portmanteau "brain + maniac" comes to mind as a rather obvious find.

Pop Quiz: What was the first personal computer? says:

The GENIAC was the first of several similar machines designed and sold by Berkeley:

Geniac = Genius Almost-Automatic Computer

Tyniac = Tiny Almost-Automatic Computer

Weeniac = Weeny Almost-Automatic Computer (only 60 made)

Brainiac = Brain-Imitating Almost-Automatic Computer

I think this makes it clear that in Berkeley's mind the -AC ending stood for "Almost-Automatic Computer" and thus confirms that it was a reference to the -AC for "automatic computer" in ENIAC et. al., and not to "maniac." If Berkeley had had "maniac" in mind, it is likely that he would have used it as the name for the first in the series.

The GENIAC dates from 1955 and BRAINIAC from 1966. At that time, computer names ending in -AC common; in addition to the -IAC's, there was also UNIVAC which was extremely well-known to the public (having "predicted" the outcome of the 1952 election). It was a familiar meme, like -tron. Dpbsmith (talk) 21:37, 14 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

So is it more-or-less confirmed that Otto Binder had that in mind when coming up with the Brainiac comic book character? Brainiac wasn't even originally a computer. Sunnan 08:20, 19 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

No, that's why I moved the explanation in the article so it no longer says "all of these" and only applies to the toy computer. Dpbsmith (talk) 10:48, 19 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]