Antikythera mechanism: Linguistic Clue Pushes Back Origin of "World's Oldest Computer"

[parasearchers]

A piece at New Scientist which suggests that the Antikythera mechanism may be even older than previously thought; an ancient Greek word on of the device's dials suggests the device may date to the early second century BC. The article is accompanied by a great animation of its (deduced) workings, too.

http://parasearcher.blogspot.com/2009/08/antikythera-mechanism-linguistic-clue.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. (a) That's stupid. The abacus is much older, and definitely counts if that thing does...

(b) It's just a debate about semantics. The brain is older than all of them, by the way.

(c) Fascinating device.

(d) Looking at the schematic makes me wonder if there's any relation to the device's construction and the epicycle-deferent conceptual model of the solar system.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Antikythera_mechanism.svg

[Occulus]

2. Someone rendered one in 3D

Supposedly what a new one would look like:

Front:



And back:



This would have been a very sophisticated device for the time.

[Ptah]

3. Thanks for the indirect link.

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