Researchers propose a 'day zero' for the oldest computer ever discovered

PC Gamer ^ | By Katie Wickens

[MayflowerMadam]

Does it have Al Gore’s signature anywhere on it?

[Ezekiel]

Thanks. Talk about timing:

Thrill Seekers (also known as The Time Shifters)...

Tom Merrick (Van Dien) is a TV reporter filming a live segment on a fire at a power plant. He spots a creepy-looking man (Richings), causing him to move away from his crew. This accidentally saves his life as the crew is killed in the partial collapse of a building. After the accident, Merrick gives up his job as a reporter and begins working for a magazine.

In June 2000, while researching catastrophes, Merrick finds several pictures of the man from the power plant, who appears to turn up in different disasters (sinking of Titanic...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrill_Seekers_(film)

Richings:

Julian Richings (born 8 September[1] 1956)[2] is a British-Canadian character actor.[3] He has appeared in over 50 films and 20 television series. He is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Death in the CW series Supernatural.

Nice link up with my dream post:

1 Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

[GingisK]

I have never heard of a mechanical computer other than the Babbage Engine and the mechanical naval artillery computers. The navy computers are clockworks that have position and speed settings for cams and the like.

You are not the gatekeeper of the English language either. Most techies would agree with me; and, we are the ones who specify and make those sort of devices.

Some people call magazines "clips" and refrigerators "ice box", but that doesn't make them right.

[DigitalVideoDude]

Yes. I was watching the entire playlist which is amazing. Sadly, progress building the hand crafted device has stalled.

[logi_cal869]

It is not a clock.

[logi_cal869]

Are you being serious?

The evidence for this device being an astronomical computational instrument places computational code within its mechanical components.

If we were provided the engineering specs, a number of us could write the program embedded in those gears.

“Computer” is semantics. In the era in which it is believed to have been assembled, it is the equivalent of a Cray 1 existing in 1940, before Colossus came about.

It is truly a computer, the irony being that even today it is beyond most people’s comprehension.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. At least it's not a clock, just a computer, although the possibility of a Day Zero exploit...

most of the rest of the keyword, sorted:

• "Art thou not Sebastian whom I before commanded to be slain with arrows?" ~ A few interesting points about Saint Sebastian's ancient Passio. [01/21/2022]
• Scientists Have Unlocked the Secrets of the Ancient 'Antikythera Mechanism' [03/14/2021]
• Antikythera Mechanism shows evidence of lunar calendar [12/18/2020]
• The Antikythera mechanism is a 2,000-year-old computer [05/24/2020]
• No, Archaeologists Probably Did Not Find a New Piece of the Antikythera Mechanism [11/23/2018]
• New discovery hints at still further treasures hidden at famous shipwreck [10/21/2017]
• Human skeleton discovered at Antikythera shipwreck after more than 2,000 [09/20/2016]
• Human skeleton found on famed Antikythera shipwreck [09/19/2016]
• Ancient Greek 'computer' came with a user guide [07/02/2016]
• The World's First Computer May Have Been Used To Tell Fortunes [Engraved text translation] [06/10/2016]
• Is This Ancient Greek 'Laptop' Proof That Time Travel Is Real? [in short, no] [02/06/2016]
• Marine Archaeologists Excavate Greek Antikythera Shipwreck [09/26/2015]
• Scientist tackles mystery of ancient astronomical device [01/11/2015]
• Stunning finds from ancient Greek shipwreck [Antikythera] [10/10/2014]
• 'Exosuit' Mission to 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck Begins [09/17/2014]
• Wearable submarine to hunt for 2000-year-old computer [06/06/2014]
• Return to Antikythera: what divers discovered in the deep [03/27/2013]
• Famed Roman Shipwreck Could Be Two [02/09/2013]
• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Antikythera Mechanism [01/19/2013]
• Return to Antikythera: Divers revisit wreck where ancient computer found [10/04/2012]
• Lego Antikythera Mechanism [12/10/2010]
• Ancient astronomy: Mechanical inspiration [11/25/2010]
• Shining a light on the past [03/31/2010]
• Coast-2-Coast AM Saturday Sept 26th -Mysterious Artifact (Antikythera mechanism) [09/25/2009]
• Shocking Discovery: a PC in B.C.? (Antikythera Mechanism) [05/02/2009]
• Archimedes and the 2000-year-old computer [12/13/2008]
• Secrets of Antikythera Mechanism, world's oldest calculating machine, revealed [07/31/2008]
• Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C. [07/31/2008]
• Medieval Calculator Up For Grabs [04/03/2008]
• OOPARTS (Out of Place Artifacts) [08/01/2007]
• Astronomy Picture of the day [12/05/2006]
• Enigma of ancient world's computer is cracked at last [11/29/2006]
• In search of lost time (Antikythera Mechanism) [11/29/2006]
• Scientists Unravel Mystery of Ancient Greek Machine [11/29/2006]
• An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists (2200yo Roman computer!) [11/29/2006]
• Ancient calculator was 1,000 yrs ahead of its time [11/29/2006]
• Were Greeks 1,400 years ahead of their time? [06/07/2006]
• The Antikythera Mechanism (Computer - 56BC) [04/30/2006]
• Kurzweil featured on new syndicated radio show "Science Fantastic" hosted by Michio Kaku [04/14/2006]
• Unearthing the Treasures of the Mediterranean [07/09/2005]
• The Antikythera Mechanism: Physical and Intellectual Salvage from the 1st Century B.C. [08/14/2004]
• Secret Handshake [03/06/2004]
• Strange stories, weird facts [01/17/2004]
• Did The Ancient Greeks Make A Computer? [11/01/2003]

[SunkenCiv]

Well summarized. I think this the vid I was looking for...

2,000 Year Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
September 27, 2021 | Wisdom Land

[logi_cal869]

I hadn’t seen that one. Thanks!

[WMarshal]

"No sir, it calculates. It performs arithmetic. There must be a stored algorithm for a machine to be classified as a computer."

The algorithm the Antikythera mechanism is built into the gears and the design of the mechanism.

[Fresh Wind]

The author has little understanding of what this device actually is.

[Graybeard58]

Did The Ancient Greeks Make A Computer? [11/01/2003]

My grand daughter posted that one, she was fascinated with the story. She was 17 years old at the time.

[GingisK]

You seem to be far out in the weeds. That thing is more like a circular slide rule or a mechanical artillery computer, not a programmable instrument. That thing does not satisfy the requirements of "touring complete".

The Antikythera mechanism is very impressive, actually stunning for the time period. Yet, it is not a "Von Neumann Engine". It cannot be compared to a modern computer; and, it is not a computer in the sense used today. I have been working with computers since 1967. I have been reading and studying the field all of the intervening time. I have made my living in the field; and, I'm an "embedded guy" who skirts the line between computers, mechanical devices, and scientific instruments

Archeologists are not qualified to arbitrarily classify the Antikythera mechanism as a computer.

[GingisK]

Precisely! It can’t be changed to do another job.

[GingisK]

To properly communicate we must agree on terms. From the dictionary we see the two definitions:

Calculator: a device that performs arithmetic operations on numbers. The simplest calculators can do only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. More sophisticated calculators can handle exponential operations, roots, logarithms, trigonometric functions, and hyperbolic functions.

Computer: a programmable electronic device that accepts raw data as input and processes it with a set of instructions (a program) to produce the result as output. It renders output just after performing mathematical and logical operations and can save the output for future use.

The difference, and a very important one, is that a computer is "programmable". This is where I am making my distinction.

[logi_cal869]

[GingisK]

I suppose a magazine is a clip to you as well. Consider yourself having been educated.

[logi_cal869]

Understood, but definitions are malleable.

See "vaccine".

So, we'll just have to agree to disagree, absent a category in between. But I'll concede the device's absence of 'input' to affect its output.

But as I typed, you've now gone full retard with your pretentiousness:

"I suppose a magazine is a clip to you as well. Consider yourself having been educated."

Thus, I maintain that you're in error, if for no other reason that your description in your other comment,

"That thing is more like a circular slide rule or a mechanical artillery computer, not a programmable instrument.

You also wrote, "The Babbage Machine is "Turing Complete".

The Babbage Machine predated Alan Touring & Collossus, DA, so Collosus wasn't a 'computer'? Which is it? I digress.

Others have cited that it is a computer, but NO ONE in this forum has claimed it to be a digital computer.

Since you are keen to definitions, your slide rule citation outlines the fallacy here:

An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (analog signals) to model the problem being solved. In contrast, digital computers represent varying quantities symbolically and by discrete values of both time and amplitude (digital signals).

Analog computers can have a very wide range of complexity. Slide rules and nomograms are the simplest, while naval gunfire control computers and large hybrid digital/analog computers were among the most complicated. Systems for process control and protective relays used analog computation to perform control and protective functions.

History of Computing

For the record:

THE BABBAGE ENGINE

Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented computers but failed to build them. The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 11 feet long.

Wear your sphincter hat a bit looser and perhaps you'll see the light through that brown fog.

I doubt that you have half the mental capacity of Babbage, let alone the 100th century BC designer of the Antikythera Mechanism.

Back atcha, pretentious JA.

[WMarshal]

"Precisely! It can’t be changed to do another job."

By your definition a compiled program is no longer an algorithm either since the binary code cannot be changed. With your logic a computer running only binary code is not a computer because it cannot be changed to do another job.

You are looking for a clear delineation between and analog computer and a binary computer but the Antikythera mechanism remains indicate that it allowed user inputs to adjust for different results so the line is blurry at best. With the Antikythera mechanism the algorithms and logic calculations are built into the gears, the dials, the inscriptions and iconography of the outside, and adjustment dials.

[GingisK]

My definition does not imply what you said it does, not even in the slightest. It beats the crap out of me how you could arrive at such an interpretation. Of course a binary computer can be changed to run another program. I can do that with a hex editor if I wanted to badly enough. I have done what you evidently have not, nor will have the opportunity to do: I have programmed digital computers using switches on their front panels. That capability is in the very nature of their design, quite unlike the Antikythera mechanism.

I am not even looking for a differentiation between an analog and a digital computer. The Antikythera mechanism is a mechanical computer that uses wheels and cogs, perhaps cams. Those cannot be changed. The input settings are presets. It is more like a fire control computer used on ships from the late 1800s and through WWII. It is certainly not an analog computer.

I've used analog computers. They consist of a number of operational amplifiers, pots, and even a plug-board. It can be programmed by changing the plug-board and the potentiometer settings. I have also used a hybrid computer, which is an analog computer connected to a digital computer via analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters.

Your response is very pedestrian. It all boils down to this: the Antikythera mechanism is not the earliest ancestor of the computer. It is an ancestor of a calculator. I have no idea why you think that thing just HAS to be what the article says its. It is an important device in its own family of instruments.