UPDATE: Apologies. Apologies. Been busy, very busy.

It's true I have more to say, just not yet.

Please come back in another week or two.

Ramon Lull made three trips to the Muslim world during the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Learned in Arabic and in Islamic and Jewish philosophy, on each visit he attempted to debate the Muslims and expound on Christian theology using arguments that he thought were so self-evident that even the Muslims could not fail to recognise them.

One of his most appealing innovations was a mechanical logic machine in which the subjects and predicates of theological propositions were arranged in circles, squares, triangles, and other geometrical figures. The contrivance worked by turning a crank and causing a wheel to revolve which rearranged the propositions in such a way that they would prove or disprove themselves. He called his device the Ars Generalis Ultima or simply the Ars Magna.

For his trouble, on each of his missions Lull was quickly arrested, detained and then promptly deported.