Antikythera Mechanism: World's oldest computer?

The Antikythera Mechanism is an incredibly complex analog computer, about the size of a shoebox, fashioned of over 30 bronze gears and covered with over 2000 previously-unidentified characters.

Now, 95% of the text has been deciphered. It appears that the device was a sort of dynamic almanac, able to calculate the positions of the sun, moon and key stars. It is a level of engineering and mathematical precision stunning, considering the device was fashioned approximately 1900 years ago.

Think about it: around 80 CE, a Roman ship tooling around the Mediterranean had this device onboard as a crib sheet for the navigator. Imagine, during WW2, if ENIAC had been aboard one of the Iowa-class battleships and used for navigation (and presumably ballistic arcs). The Antikythera Mechanism may have been a secret weapon like the ULTRA device, employed at great cost and great risk to help the Romans (who weren't a seagoing folk by nature) find a hidden rendez-vous to meet with an informer.

If I made this up, no one would believe it. The story would go in the specfic pile along with alternate history and tales of alien abduction. The world is an infinitely fascinating place where things like the Antikythera Mechanism simply turn up from time to time.

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