An Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists (2200yo Roman computer!)

New York Times ^ | November 29, 2006 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

[Alter Kaker]

A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.

But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.

The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world’s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers was able to decipher many inscriptions and reconstruct the gear functions, revealing, they said, “an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period.”

The researchers, led by Tony Freeth and Mike G. Edmunds, both of the University of Cardiff, Wales, are reporting the results of their study in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.

[Alter Kaker]

so what did this computer DO? It sure aas heck didn't have a general purpose OS like Linuxicus or Solarium on it.

Well, the problem was it just never had enough RAMs. Every time you attached a RAM, a vestal virgin would come up and sacrifice it, or turn it into RAM chops.

[Cicero]

Roman invention of the arch (and the vault) was something I was taught in school and have seen since in architecture books. Can you point me to the possibility of prior invention?

[timer]

Yes, it was discovered that someone in iraq(where else?)had a gold statue-plating operation with electrolysis and a crude battery, 2000+ years ago. The romans were good engineers with their water mills, viaducts, as well as Galen in the medical field, that greek fellow with his mechanical toys using pulleys, gears; the chinese with all of their inventions of 1500 years ago...and yet it seems that there has to be a cultural basis, a fruitful soil if you will, for innovation to flower in. Thus the Renaissance was the foundation of our industrial society. The stulifying effects of religion and ignorance were finally overcome by SCIENCE and enlightenment. Classic example : Pope John Paul finally apologizing to Galileo : yes, the earth is a spinning sphere; we admit we were wrong...300 years too late. Now we have ignorant bigots insisting the earth/universe is 6000 years old(ala bishop ussher of ireland, murphy must have been his middle name). Will it take THEM another 300 years to be enlightened?

[SunkenCiv]

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