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June 07, 2006, 12:48 PM ET
The World's Oldest Computer?
Before Colossus, ENIAC, and even the difference engine, there was the “Antikythera Mechanism”—a mysterious device that some researchers now say may be the world’s oldest computer.
The mechanism, which was discovered in 1900 on a wrecked cargo ship off a Greek island, is a complex combination of dials and wheels. Scientists and anthropologists dated the device to about 80 BC, but they’ve struggled to figure out just what its purpose was.
Now, though, a team of British and Greek researchers has announced a discovery that sounds as if it’s been ripped from the pages of The Da Vinci Code: a hidden inscription that suggests the mechanism was used to predict the motions of planets. The device could be more than just an ahead-of-its-time computer, the researchers say. It may also provide evidence that Greeks considered the possibility of a heliocentric solar system. (The Scotsman)
Categories: Research
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