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106 Comments
- cody50, on 10/12/2007, -4/+68World oldest computer == your noggin.
- Days, on 10/12/2007, -1/+55 Antikythera mechanism - http://images.google.com/images?q=Antikythera&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images
- arthurbarnhouse, on 10/12/2007, -6/+48Man, I hope that was a joke.
- brandizzle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+33"this device was found like over 50 years ago i belive"
102 years ago. RTFA. - elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28I read something about that once, actually. It measured to something like 6 THz or something similar, but it's very hard to accurately measure, because your brain works "in mysterious ways"
- mobilehavoc, on 10/12/2007, -5/+30...even stranger, it was running Windows Vista.
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
(forgot to add link) - Anpheus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21It's impossible to compare the two because the brain operates asynchronously, and there is no central clock keeping it all in check. If there were, it would operate ridiculously slowly because the clock frequency of a synchronized chip must be capable of processing information before the next clock tick, and that is limited by the speed at which information travels. The neuron is nowhere near as quick as a silicon wire in terms of moving information along.
For the brain to operate at 6 THz, the dimensions of the brain would be measured in microns. At 6 GHz, it would be a couple inches in diameter. So clock speed is completely irrelevant and meaningless to this discussion. - Twango, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20pythagorOS
- eurocrisp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18You can't really compare, i don't think:
"While computers process information using a binary system of zeros and ones, the neuron, Liu discovered, communicates its electrical signals in trinary--utilizing not only zeros and ones, but also minus ones. This allows additional interactions to occur during processing. For instance, two signals can add together or cancel each other out, or different pieces of information can link up or try to override one another."
~MIT News Office - puggy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21This is old. :)
- terranaut, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18No sense to find the pictures yourself, no brain.
- falloutsyndrome, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21my question is how fast would a human brain be in ghz or thz ect, any guesses anyone?
- craigts, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16This device has been studied quite a bit and has been featured on Discovery/History channel programs a few times with pictures and a model of what the device might have looked like when it was built.
- salweem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Some other good stuff. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/07/antikythera_mechanism/
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Oh, this is talking about a thing called the antikythera mechanism, I believe. Which was found by fisherman off the coast of the greek island antikythera. And yes, it is very real.
- Tsujigiri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Digg for one of my favorite all time archaeological doodads.
- lazyrussian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12and this all happened thanks to the middle ages. (age of stupidity).
I wonder where we would have been (technologically speaking) if that period of time never occured... - buckrogers1965, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Yes, civilizations have risen to our level and fallen several times before. We really are not that advanced. 99.99% of people couldn't explain how a TV works, little alone build one. We are just proud arrogant barbarians complacent as the lords of the universe with no real knowledge of how thin our veneer of civilization really is. This computer in the article is as advanced as most of the computers we had up until just before WWII. They have found 6000 year old batteries that produced power. The Romans knew about steam power and were excellent engineers, some of their water transport systems, roads and bridges are in use to this very day.
It's not a coincidence that pyramids of huge proportions were all build around the world around the same time frame 10,000 years ago. After that time all around the world most cities just emptied for no apparent reason and history just ended to be picked up thousands of years later by entirely different cultures in the same regions. It's no coincidence that most major religions talk about the end times, and that most ancient religions talk about having migrated to the regions where they now live because the ancient lands were destroyed in some catastrophe. Fire, flood, famine, mountains erupting, war, all are reasons given for a few survivors having escaped to new lands to start again.
Even within the last few thousand years we have forgotten where huge ancient cities existed before. Troy was just a myth 1000 years ago, despite having been lived in just 2000 years ago.
There are rumors of dozens of ancient civilizations that are just as valid as the rumors about Troy were before Troy was rediscovered. Time and time again distant rumors from the past hint at mans civilizations being destroyed. Normally the reason given for being destroyed is that they were full of hubris, which is an overconfident pride and arrogance. This attitude is most definitely prevalent today.
It only takes a few years with no summer with no food grown world wide to totally destroy civilization. When the people in the cities don't have food anymore they leave the cities and descend on everything like locus. After that the survivors turn on each other until only a handful of people are around when the plants start growing again.
If you don't think that sometimes summer skips a years or two, do a search for "year without summer" on the Internet and then double check the references. The reasons Mormons left the area they started the religion and have religious laws that state they must have a years supply of food is entirely because of the crop failures of 1816.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
A similar incident is what is thought to have helped kicked off the dark ages.
A wide spread nuclear war, a large ongoing volcanic eruption, or a large meteor impact, would cause a world wide cloud cover similar to those of the 1816 volcanic events and kick in a cooling that might last decades. After such an incident the remaining few scattered humans would be half insane and nearly starved to death, they would form tribal communities and react to any thing different with tribal taboos where any violation or deviation from belief is punished by death. - delta013, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Considering the decay of our education system, it wouldn't surprise me.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9BS, the abacus is world's oldest computer.
Inaccurate - salweem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10This was on the History Channel a while back.
- TheKillDoctor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Then I guess you don't believe anything you hear on the radio.
- rolotomasi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7This just goes to show that people weren't any dumber 2000 years ago than they are now. But what is somewhat disturbing that all this skill and knowledge was lost for 1700 years until the renaissance came along. Could the same thing happen to our society? That in a couple of hundred years, where our great cities and universities were, there will remain just a handful of primitive warring tribes?
- Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7[...]"but they dont know how it works"
Don't know how it works? They've known how it works for 40 years now. A few years ago, a guy named John Gleave even made a working replica of it. It was used to track the motion of the sun and the moon. - coolspray, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8I'll second that and also request people stop posting the same Wikipedia links...
- cody50, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Ever seen a real picture of an electron?
- ztirffritz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5http://library.thinkquest.org/C001501/the_saga/compare.htm
There is also some really good information about comparing the brain to computers in the book "Mind at Lightspeed" - Nolte(ISBN# 0743205014) - OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6This reminds me of the plot in Knights Of The Old Republic. Remember the ancient buried starmaps that lead you to the hidden planet?
I wonder if this astrological device that they found here on Earth could have an unexpected use as well? Perhaps if placed in the right location, and pointed in the right direction at a certain time of day?
This could be the clue we've been looking for, which will divulge the location of the Stargate!
Quick, pack the equipment, there's no time to waste! We're off to Antikythera! - masterofshadows, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5your very wrong, a computer is by definition anything that computes. In other words, if it does math, then its a computer. That is why even the abacus and slide rule are considered computers. what you are thinking of are programable computers, the name computer is just a shortening of that name.
- pr0t3st, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Antikythera_Computer
I submitted this^ story exactly one year ago today and it just now makes it to the front page..
wow people. - CuttersChoice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
- nufoto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Its highly unlikely that civilization will collapse again. Its called progress." I'm sure they said the same thing back then ..... Empire's, Technology is all ways changing!
- CarlStreet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4That is NOT the oldest computer -- as a contract programmer I have been forced to worked on far older systems at some clients... )
- Daisama, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Guys, just stop. No more "Does it run linux/windows/osx" jokes. Its getting old...
- kneeare, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5or of jesus?
- Lavarock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Super old. It's interesting, but it isn't news. Maybe if they'd found something more about the device, it would be appropriate to post this. No digg.
- jolionessness, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Buried because the comment in question is terrible
- Tom_Riddle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3no way man.
they were smart guys.
Mac OS 80BC Sabertooth - Sequence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Is it a mac or a PC?
- grayapple, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Thats it kids - try to get THAT to run linux.
- Sassanix, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7this is an analog computer, oldest known now... it's not digital so enough of the stupid linux and windows jokes.
- lazyrussian, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4this was on history channel a few months back - they think it belonged to archimedes, but they have no proof of it.
- Sequence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Say all they find from our era is some "Simple Life" DVD's =D
- cody50, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@obkenobi
But, it appears to have been erased from the records! - D3koy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2w00t
- drbroccoli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Benchmark study: The abacus vs the Antikythera Mechanism.
- Yashu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Dugg for an ancient society that valued knowledge and logic while another ancient society was getting ready to worship some magician carpenter guy.
What a cool device. - quoquo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2java animation to give you an idea what it looks like when "computing".
http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/whatsnew/column/antikytheraI-0400/kyth5.html -
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