Saturday, 7. October 2006
Topic: COMPUTER - on October 7, 2006 at 3:17:00 PM CEST
The First Computer
A mysterious device found in Greek waters was not brought by aliens, but it was used by ancient Greeks to track distant stars. In 1901, divers recovered a shoebox-size, gear-filled box from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. Ever since, the enigmatic box—known as the Antikythera Mechanism—has spawned its share of bizarre theories. "Some people thought it came from outer space," scoffs Athens University physicist Yanis Bitsakis. "And since the mechanism has Greek writing on it, the other ridiculous story is that Greeks themselves came from outer space and brought the mechanism with them." More sober minds suggested the box was a clock or a navigational device, but even those interpretations rested on skimpy evidence.
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