World's first computer, the Antikythera Mechanism, 'started up' in 178 B.C., scientists claim

[Judi Lynn]

By Owen Jarus published 1 day ago

Not everyone agrees with the conclusion.

The mysterious Antikythera mechanism, thought by some to be the world's first computer, was first "started up" on Dec. 22, 178 B.C., archaeologists have now found.

Discovered by sponge divers in a Roman-era shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901, the elaborate ancient computer, which looks like a shoebox-size contraption with gears and dials that have numerous tiny inscriptions written on them, could predict eclipses and determine when various athletic games took place, among other functions.

Over the years, researchers have painstakingly pieced together the many fragments of the Antikythera mechanism to figure out how it was created and how it would have been used 2,000 or so years ago. There are many questions plaguing the device: Who made it? Where did they live? Why create it and what start date did it have? Now, a team of scientists has determined that "turn on" date, detailing their findings online March 28 on the preprint database arXiv, an online journal where research can be uploaded before peer review.

. . .

In their new paper, the researchers specify a number of reasons why they think Dec. 22, 178 B.C. was the mechanism's start date, which is the earliest date on which all calculations made on the mechanism are based. It's sort of like the temperature absolute zero on the kelvin scale.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/antikythera-mechanism-start-date-found

[bucolic_frolic]

1. And Elon Musk wanted to buy it!

[twodogsbarking]

2. On April 5, 1982 I worked on a computer for the first time

and most every day after. It was ten meg. Ran on CPM operating system.

[William Seger]

3. I don't believe it could have been the first - far too sophisticated

There must have been earlier, simpler devices, but so rare that they are all now lost.

[tanyev]

4. Marking to read later.