Ponder Stibbons

In the fictional universe of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of books, Ponder Stibbons is a wizard in Unseen University. He is the head of inadvisably applied magic, and works in the High Energy Magic building. His first appearance is as a student wizard in Moving Pictures (1990).

Stibbons' most succesful creation is Hex, a magical computer composed of glass tubes full of ants, and other assorted complex systems, such as mice. Hex is initially capable only of simple arithmetic; however as the series continues, and more complex additions are made to Hex, it becomes more or less sapient.

In The Science of Discworld, a book which interleaved a Discworld story and real world science, Stibbons' creates a device for splitting the thaum, the smallest unit of magic. The creation of this device borrows heavily from our real world splitting of the atom.

In The Last Continent he is offered the job as assistant to the god of evolution, but rejects it after only a few hours when he realises that the god's big project is, in fact, a cockroach.