WEBVTT

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what was the first computer well that depends a lot on what you mean by

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computer I mean we're all used to stored program general purpose digital

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computers but those have only been around for less than a hundred years the

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first aniac or the electronic numerical

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integrator and computer was created for the US Military and was completed only

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in 1945 by the literal meaning of the word

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a computer is a person or tool that makes calculations people whose Prim

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role is to quickly do large amounts of math have existed as long as complex

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societies have thanks to things like taxes however if we want to know what

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the first formal computational tool was

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well an obvious candidate is the Abacus neither of those feels like a satisfying

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answer though and you probably wouldn't accept either in a game of trivia if you

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were on my team yes but if I was playing against you definitely not if we instead

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take computer to mean a machine designed to model solve a theoretical problem

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well the first known computer is still surprisingly ancient the antia mechanism

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is a bronze mechanical device about the size of a large book that was discovered

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in 1901 inside of a Greek shipwreck that

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sank over 2,000 years ago the device was

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found to contain surprisingly small interlocking gears the largest being 5

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in in diameter and it was later determined to be a kind of hand cranked

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analog computer its purpose was most likely to calculate how the positions of

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the Sun the moon and the known planets would change with the passage of time

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allowing the user to predict eclipses keep in mind that this was back when

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academics had the Earth in the center of the planetary system rather than the Sun

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so if this thing was in any way accurate

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it must have been crazy complicated while it's unlikely that this kind of

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complex mechanism was common 2,000 years

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ago it raises the possibility that other oddly Advanced devices from the era once

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existed and have simply been lost to time we do know of other simpler devices

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from this time like the planisphere a type of adjustable star chart that can

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show which stars will be visible on a given date and the astrola another kind

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of star chart which could be used to track heavenly bodies and solve

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spherical trigonometry problems making it useful for navigation but the Greeks

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aren't the only ancient civilization where we've discovered evidence of early

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analog computers according to Chinese writings engineer M Jun created what is

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called a South pointing Chariot in the 3rd Century this was a mechanical device

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stylized to look like a doll pointing its finger the doll would sit at top the

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roof of your chariot and it would Point continuously in One Direction no matter

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which way the Chariot turned now to do this it used a differential gear that

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would compensate for the Turning of the wheels keeping the device pointed the

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same direction it was set to at the beginning of the journey for for

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cultural reasons they were set to Point South if that seems odd just remember

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modern magnetic compasses don't actually Point North they align themselves with

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the globe's magnetic field meaning they Point both North and South we just think

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of them as only pointing North for our own arbitrary cultural reasons in any

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case this kind of old school GPS had some pretty serious limitations with

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modern technology we can create extremely precise gears but small

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inconsistencies in these third Century gears would compound over the course of

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even relatively short Journeys causing the device to gradually drift over time

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realistically you'd only be able to travel a few miles before that drift

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became significant and its orientation would need to be reset and that's before

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the gears started to wear unevenly with use also a mechanical device that can

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only solve one problem where is South is

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pretty limited so what was the first programmable machine we'll tell you

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candidate for the world's first programmable machine is found in the

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book of ingenious devices which was written by the Banu Musa Brothers of

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Persia and published in the year 850 the

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book describes a number of mechanical devices including an automatic water

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fountain hot and cold running Taps and a

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pressure sensor they also included a steam powered flute and a water-powered

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organ both instruments could be programmed by swapping out a cylinder

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with raised pins indicating notes in order to play different music you can

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find a similar cylinder mechanism in modern-day windup music boxes which have

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largely been replaced with Tik Tok arguably the first analog computers that

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wound up widely used by the average person were clocks human beings have

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been trying to devise more and more precise methods of measuring time for

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thousands of years using everything from Shadows to water to sand to incense to

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candles to gravity tried basically everything while the average hunter or

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farmer probably didn't need to know what time it was beyond morning noon and

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night just try to imagine running a government without clocks how are you

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supposed to schedule a meeting you could try a pigeon based conference call but

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you just know that none of your scribes are wearing pants it just it's icky the

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first known clock with gears goes back to the 3rd Century BC a century prior to

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the antitha mechanism and was created by the math ician Archimedes it was waterp

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powerered like many earlier clocks but it also blew a whistle and it made a

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little model owl flap its wings to Mark the hour making it kind of the world's

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first cuckoo clock so C kudos to him fully mechanical

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clocks wouldn't arise until the 12th century mechanical calculators wouldn't

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come about until the 17th un odd aspect

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of the history of these kinds of devices is that they were variously invented

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lost rediscovered reinvented and passed

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back and forth between different civilizations in the modern day we tend

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to take for granted that the invention of the steam engine kicked off the

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Industrial Revolution and that the invention of the programmable Loom

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inevitably led to the general purpose digital computer and at the risk of

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going a bit off topic it's notable that not only did ancient engineers create a

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number of astonishing Analog Devices and complex machines they also created their

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own steam engine writings from the first first century BCE by Roman architect

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Vitruvius describe a kind of simple steam engine while it couldn't have been

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particularly powerful or efficient it both worked and produced torque with the

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information we have it's unclear if this engine or anything like it was ever put

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to practical use it may have been just a novelty or educational device used to

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demonstrate the physics of weather it's fun to imagine however what would have

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happened if ancient Scholars had continued developing this kind of tech

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could we have had an industrial Revolution that began in ancient Greece

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rather than in 18th century Britain or alternatively will we wind up losing the

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knowledge we have now only to ReDiscover it in another 2,000 years quick print

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out this video's automatically generated transcript Humanity depends on you and I

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depend on the fact that you watch this entire video for my happiness thank you

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for watching like the video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it check

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out this one where we explain the difference between an analog and a

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digital computer you probably already knew though you're so smart