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The World's Oldest Computer May Have Predicted the Future (gizmodo.com)

Gizmodo reports: Discovered in an ancient shipwreck near Crete in 1901, the freakishly advanced Antikythera Mechanism has been called the world's first computer. A decades-long investigation into the 2,000 year-old-device is shedding new light onto this mysterious device... It wasn't programmable in the modern sense, but it's considered the world's first analog computer.
schwit1 shares a report from the Associated Press:: For over a century since its discovery in an ancient shipwreck, the exact function of the Antikythera Mechanism -- named after the southern Greek island off which it was found -- was a tantalizing puzzle.... After more than a decade's efforts using cutting-edge scanning equipment, an international team of scientists has now read about 3,500 characters of explanatory text -- a quarter of the original -- in the innards of the 2,100-year-old remains. They say it was a kind of philosopher's guide to the galaxy, and perhaps the world's oldest mechanical computer.

4 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The World's Oldest Computer May Have Predicted the Future

    ...the 2,000 year-old-device ... wasn't programmable in the modern sense, but it's considered the world's first analog computer.

    ...it was a kind of philosopher's guide to the galaxy, and perhaps the world's oldest mechanical computer.

    So... 42?

  2. Nostrodumbass by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    an international team of scientists has now read about 3,500 characters of explanatory text

    The fragment says, "...in 2100 years, an Oompa Loompa with strangely tiny fingers will attempt to rise to power. Beware, since he has the mark of the Beast on his forehead, which you can't see because he's got this weird thing going on with his hair. His wife will be a nice piece of Slovenian ass though, so big ups for that."

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Re:doesn't tell the future by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Too bad it didn't predict the shipwreck.

  4. Re:doesn't tell the future by jblues · · Score: 5, Funny

    The text said: "Primum Scribe!" (first post), followed by "Moo dixit boves mooo" (moo say the cows moo). After that "Nescis quid dicis de te twat stupri" (you don't know what you're talking about you fucking twat) and (mostly unintelligible) words of a similar nature.

    --
    If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>