The National Museum of Computing in the UK (TNMOC, www.tnmoc.org) awaited visitors with two special exhibits on the second weekend in August. Visitors could view two legendary machines, a real one and a factious one, side by side; the replica of EDSAC, designed in 1947, was presented in the current state it is now in the reconstruction process (EDSAC Replica, www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/edsac) along with Orac, the omniscient machine from Blake’s 7, the sci-fi series running on television in Britain from 1978 to 1981.

While EDSAC changed the technical world of the late 1940s, indeed served science, and helped scientists achieve Noble-prizes in astronomy and biochemistry in the 1950s, Orac despised human beings and communicated disdainfully with them.

Orac was seriously damaged in the underground facility where it was stored, and it could only be partially restored, at least this was the story in the television series. It was “reawaken from its sleep” by special effects expert Mat Irvine, who created a seemingly faithful copy of the machine.

On the other hand, a perfectly faithful replica of EDSAC will be completed next year and put to work at the end of 2015.