Yes. Here's some ATL terminology I've found on the wiki page. Unfortunately, a lot of it doesn't go that deep. And many of the contributions are from your timeline, funnily and predictably enough.
Artificial intelligence
GURPS Alternate Earths II,
Caliph scenario: "Djinn"
Bit
- OTL meaning: First recorded use in 1948, supposedly a contraction of 'binary digit'. A bit refers to the basic unit of information in data processing, which can have the value 0 or 1. Eight bits make a byte. The limit on the number of bits that can be processed in parallel is one measure (though not the defining one) of computing power: for example most home computers run on either 32-bit or 64-bit software. Focus on this number for propaganda purposes was an important part of the 'Console Wars' until the sixth generation of consoles. See also
here,
here and
here.
-
Look to the West: Uses the Greek word 'meros', meaning 'part', so for example a 1-bit system is unimeric and a 6-bit system is hexameric. This terminology is used in OTL to describe a large molecule made up of a number of subsections, especially a protein.
Computers
- OTL meaning: "Counting machine". Originally referred to a person doing computations/calculations, i.e. a counter/calculator. Later mostly used for the machines doing this (and other stuff).
- Ad Astra Per Aspera: "Tabulators".
- A Brother to Dragons: "Calculator". As with the previous one, same definition of computer, different word.
- Cliveless World: "Fountains" or "Founts". Apparently from likening them to a "fountain of wisdom".
- Dominion of Southern America: At first, "Electronic logic engine". During the mid-to-late 20th century, "Logicine" became the predominant term.
- GURPS Alternate Earths I, Gernsback scenario: "Electronic brain". A term sometimes used in OTL as well, in the past more often than nowadays.
- Look to the West: "Ypologists", from the Greek word for calculator (the OTL Greek word for computer is the related "υπολογιστής"). Popularised by a punning song which had early computer pioneers nervously "apologising" to a mob of angry arithmeticians who were out of a job. Prior to this word catching on, early computing experiments were based on programmable looms, and these machines were often just called "programmables", a term that was also used for some early computers.
- TL 191: After The End: "Combines". Home computers are called "home combines" and desktops are "desk combines".
- The Cusanus Game: "Electric Pascal calculation apparatus" (
elektrischer Pascal-Rechenapparat). The early examples at least. Ada Lovelace did the programming.
Computer bugs
- OTL meaning: A term coined by computer programmer Grace Hopper. Read more about the history of the term
here.
- Chaos Timeline: "Weeds". Because they have to be "weeded out" by computer programmers.
- The Sparrow Avengers universe: "Goblins" or "Tricksters". The terms were based more on references to mythology than to common plant or animal pests. It is reminescent of the way how certain OTL nations refer to technological glitches in newspaper printing (e.g. typos) as "newspaper goblins".
Computer hackers
- OTL meaning: "Hacker", originally derived from 'to hack about', meaning similar to 'to mess about' - "someone who messes about with computers". See also
the Jargon Dictionary entry.
- Chaos Timeline: "Logo" (as in, one Logo, two Logos). Derived from the Greek word for "logic" or "knowledge".
- Star Wars universe: "Slicer".
- Thalvetia universe (by Thande): "Rousser". In an unlikely coincidence this term is used both by the Union of Humanity and the Doagorik Empire - the Humans derive it from computer magnate Richard Rousse, while the Doagori derive it from the name of the planet where their main computer archives are located, Roussall.
- The Difference Engine: "Clacker". Note that the novel takes place in a steampunk Victorian Britain entering a primitive version of the Information Age, where computers are actually mechanical calculating engines based on Babbage's design - hence the "clacking" sound they emit while being used.
- The Sparrow Avengers universe: "Cruncher", since hacking involves a fair bit of pattern and code crunching.
Computer networks
Chaos Timeline: "System". Pronounced roughly as "süsthem" in German, the primary global language of TTL.
Cybernetics
- OTL meaning: A term for the science of complex systems. Derived from the Greek
kybernētēs - "steersman".
- Chaos Timeline: "Theory of Complexity".
Internet
- Ace Combat: In the alternate world of this game series, the equivalent is the so-called "Electrosphere".
- Ad Astra Per Aspera: "Macroserv". It is used strictly for military purposes and lacks a civilian version.
- Chaos Timeline: "Weltsystem".
Welt is German for 'world' and "system" refers to the computer networks.
- The Course of Human Events: "Geomesh". Self-explanatory.
- Gurkani Alam (Mughal World): "Lace". Invented by the British, who also coined the term.
- GURPS Alternate Earths I, Shikaku-Mon scenario: "Tapestry"
- Firefly: Calls its equivalent computer network "The Cortex".
- TL-191: After the End: "ComboNet", since computers are known as "combines".
Pixel
- Original meaning: First recorded in 1965, but was said to be in use at the time. One of the tiny dots that make up the representation of an image in a computer's memory. Exact etymology unclear, but possibly derived from 'picture element' or 'picture cell'.
- Look to the West: "Iota", from the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet and proverbially used to refer to a very small but significant part of a whole ("not one iota of difference"), stemming from a schism in the Church over the spelling of a word concerning Christ's nature with or without an iota.
Virtual reality
- Chaos Timeline: "Märchenwelt". German for "fairytale world".
-
The Sparrow Avengers universe: "Simulated universe" or "simulated setting". Often referred to by the contraction "Simuniv" or the (ironic from OTL point of view) acronym "SUV".
I know that the word bug comes from a woman specialized in computing science, whose machine was broken due to a bug sneaking in the capacitors
Exactly. The lady in question was
Grace Hopper.
----
Me and Max invented some alternate jargon terms for those types of issues, they're also in the wiki article.
As far as terms like "Trojan" goes, I think that would be a fairly logical and popular nicknames in most timelines similar to ours (i.e. an industrial revolution that was at first dominant in Europe, etc.). People loved classical mythology in the 18th and 19th century, and if computing science takes off already then and has a more straight path to the present, someone likening that sort of deliberate bug/infiltration type to a Trojan horse would be a no-brainer, given the colloquial popularity of that metaphore/reference.
I've had this slightly silly idea that if the Babbage computing machines take off and are improved upon, maybe even networking them with a telegraph network later on, the operators could refer to the computers affectionately as "Charlies"/"charlies" ("charlie" being a single computer) or maybe even "Babbs" or "Babbies".
In my own fantasy setting (not an ATL, unless you think of it as ASB), computers are simply "calcs", a simple contraction of "calculator".
