On the Kickstarter page he specifically mentions that the Digi-Comp 2 (from the 1960s!) was an influence http://www.oldcomputermuseum.com/digicomp_2.html
Thanks very much for this. I expect that the simple design that I (and others - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14452315) posted was likely inspired by this - which is interesting!