Update on the Antikythera Machine (BC Steampunk)

[Telarus]

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/07/jo-marchant-consultant-from-sw.html

July 29, 2009 12:59 PM
World's first computer may be even older than thought
antik1.jpgJo Marchant, consultant

From Swiss Army knives to iPhones, it seems we just love fancy gadgets with as many different functions as possible. And judging from the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, the desire to impress with the latest multipurpose must-have item goes back at least 2000 years.

This mysterious box of tricks was a portable clockwork computer, dating from the first or second century BC. Operated by turning a handle on the side, it modelled the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets through the sky, sported a local calendar, star calendar and Moon-phase display, and could even predict eclipses and track the timing of the Olympic games.

... [MOAR]...

They backdated it due to a recent translation of one of the regional Games that went into the Olympic scheduler that this Blackberry^BC had equipped. Also, go see the updated animation. As someone with 3d training, working out that quality from x-ray scans was srsly impressive.

[Bu🤠ns]

THAT is incredible.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Ugh, stupid people in the comments are insisting that it's not a computer.

[Requia ☣]

Its not.  A computer is programmable.  (Or an actual person, if we're talking pre WWII terminology).

[Bu🤠ns]

i'm not an expert on the terminology but wouldn't the construction of the components be constituted as 'the programming'?

[BADGE OF HONOR]

Yes.  It calculates the positions of planets in future dates among many other things.  It's absolutely stunning the kind of craftsmanship and mathematics that had to go into making it.

[Iason Ouabache]

Yes.  It calculates the positions of planets in future dates among many other things.  It's absolutely stunning the kind of craftsmanship and mathematics that had to go into making it.

Especially considering that they were using a geocentric model of the Solar System. I still can't believe that it took them that long to figure out that the sun goes in the middle.

[Requia ☣]

i'm not an expert on the terminology but wouldn't the construction of the components be constituted as 'the programming'?

No thats engineering.  If you try to change what it does the entire device fails.  You have to build from the ground up (or nearly) to create a similar device that adds in the planets that have been discovered since it was created.

Further, a computer is based on symbolic logic, this thing probably predates formal logic, and almost certainly predates any formal logic more advanced than Aristotle's.

That said, building this thing would be soooo much harder than writing any piddling computer program.

[Remington]

We really don't give the ancients enough credit nowadays  :argh
They were some pretty smart dudes, building this crap while fending off dinosaurs.

[Cramulus]

We really don't give the ancients enough credit nowadays  :argh
They were some pretty smart dudes, building this crap while fending off dinosaurs.

we give them too much credit. I suspect some kind of Flintstones / Jetsons crossover.

[LMNO]

I think I read a slashfic like that once...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Its not.  A computer is programmable.  (Or an actual person, if we're talking pre WWII terminology).

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=computer

[Requia ☣]

I'm sorry, I forgot dictionary people were experts in the field of mathematical history.   

[Requia ☣]

http://www.cciw.com/content/computer_etymology.html better link,

Edit: I just proved myself wrong didn't I?