1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,280
What was the first computer? Well, that depends a lot on what you mean by computer.

2
00:00:05,280 --> 00:00:09,600
I mean, we're all used to stored program, general purpose, digital computers,

3
00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:12,800
but those have only been around for less than a hundred years.

4
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,600
The first, ENIAC, or the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer,

5
00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:22,640
was created for the U.S. military and was completed only in 1945.

6
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:28,880
By the literal meaning of the word, a computer is a person or tool that makes calculations.

7
00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:33,440
People whose primary role is to quickly do large amounts of math have existed

8
00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:37,680
as long as complex societies have, thanks to things like taxes.

9
00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:42,160
However, if we want to know what the first formal computational tool was,

10
00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:45,200
well, an obvious candidate is the abacus.

11
00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:50,960
Neither of those feels like a satisfying answer, though, and you probably wouldn't accept either in a game of trivia.

12
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:55,280
If you were on my team, yes, but if I was playing against you, definitely not.

13
00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:01,520
If we instead take computer to mean a machine designed to model and solve a theoretical problem,

14
00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:05,520
well, the first known computer is still surprisingly ancient.

15
00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:10,800
The Antikythera mechanism is a bronze mechanical device about the size of a large book

16
00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:17,280
that was discovered in 1901 inside of a Greek shipwreck that sank over 2,000 years ago.

17
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:21,920
The device was found to contain surprisingly small interlocking gears,

18
00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:29,200
the largest being five inches in diameter. And it was later determined to be a kind of hand-cranked analog computer.

19
00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:34,160
Its purpose was, most likely, to calculate how the positions of the sun, the moon,

20
00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:40,240
and the known planets would change with the passage of time, allowing the user to predict eclipses.

21
00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:45,760
Keep in mind that this was back when academics had the Earth in the center of the planetary system,

22
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:52,080
rather than the sun. So if this thing was in any way accurate, it must have been crazy complicated.

23
00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:58,080
While it's unlikely that this kind of complex mechanism was common 2,000 years ago,

24
00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:03,440
it raises the possibility that other oddly advanced devices from the era once existed

25
00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:10,320
and have simply been lost to time. We do know of other simpler devices from this time, like the planisphere,

26
00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:15,120
a type of adjustable star chart that can show which stars will be visible on a given date,

27
00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:20,320
and the astrolabe, another kind of star chart which could be used to track heavenly bodies

28
00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:24,960
and solve spherical trigonometry problems, making it useful for navigation.

29
00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:30,000
But the Greeks aren't the only ancient civilization where we've discovered evidence of early analog

30
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,600
computers. According to Chinese writings, engineer Ma Jun created what is called a

31
00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:43,280
south-pointing chariot in the third century. This was a mechanical device, stylized to look like a doll pointing its finger.

32
00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:47,280
The doll would sit atop the roof of your chariot, and it would point continuously

33
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:54,560
in one direction, no matter which way the chariot turned. Now to do this, it used a differential gear that would compensate for the turning of the

34
00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:58,800
wheels, keeping the device pointed the same direction it was set to at the beginning of

35
00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:02,880
the journey. For cultural reasons, they were set to point south.

36
00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:07,760
If that seems odd, just remember, modern magnetic compasses don't actually point

37
00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:12,960
north. They align themselves with the globe's magnetic field, meaning they point both north

38
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:18,560
and south. We just think of them as only pointing north for our own arbitrary cultural reasons.

39
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:23,840
In any case, this kind of old-school GPS had some pretty serious limitations.

40
00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:30,160
With modern technology, we can create extremely precise gears. But small inconsistencies in these

41
00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:35,120
third-century gears would compound over the course of even relatively short journeys,

42
00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:40,560
causing the device to gradually drift over time. Realistically, you'd only be able to travel

43
00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:45,600
a few miles before that drift became significant, and its orientation would need to be reset.

44
00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:50,800
And that's before the gears started to wear unevenly with use. Also, a mechanical device

45
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:57,680
that can only solve one problem, where is south, is pretty limited. So what was the first programmable

46
00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:03,600
machine? One possible candidate for the world's first programmable machine is found in the Book

47
00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:09,440
of Ingenious Devices, which was written by the Banu Musa brothers of Persia, and published in the

48
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:15,520
year 850. The book describes a number of mechanical devices, including an automatic water fountain,

49
00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:22,160
hot and cold running taps, and a pressure sensor. They also included a steam-powered flute and a

50
00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:28,480
water-powered organ. Both instruments could be programmed by swapping out a cylinder with raised

51
00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:34,400
pins indicating notes in order to play different music. You can find a similar cylinder mechanism

52
00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:39,600
in modern-day wind-up music boxes, which have largely been replaced with TikTok.

53
00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:46,480
Arguably, the first analog computers that wound up widely used by the average person were clocks.

54
00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,960
Human beings have been trying to devise more and more precise methods of measuring time for

55
00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:57,200
thousands of years, using everything from shadows to water to sand to incense to candles to gravity.

56
00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:01,520
Tried basically everything. While the average hunter or farmer probably didn't need to know

57
00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:06,880
what time it was beyond morning, noon, and night, just try to imagine running a government without

58
00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:11,760
clocks. How are you supposed to schedule a meeting? You could try a pigeon-based conference call,

59
00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:16,480
but you just know that none of your scribes are wearing pants, and it's just icky.

60
00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:22,720
The first known clock, with gears, goes back to the 3rd century BC, a century prior to the

61
00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:28,640
Antikythera mechanism, and was created by the mathematician Archimedes. It was water-powered,

62
00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:34,320
like many earlier clocks, but it also blew a whistle. And it made a little model owl flap its

63
00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:42,400
wings to mark the hour, making it kind of the world's first cuckoo clock. So kudos to him.

64
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:46,080
Fully mechanical clocks wouldn't arise until the 12th century.

65
00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:49,440
Mechanical calculators wouldn't come about until the 17th.

66
00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:55,280
An odd aspect of the history of these kinds of devices is that they were variously invented,

67
00:05:55,280 --> 00:06:00,720
lost, rediscovered, reinvented, and passed back and forth between different civilizations.

68
00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:05,440
In the modern day, we tend to take for granted that the invention of the steam engine kicked

69
00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:10,720
off the industrial revolution, and that the invention of the programmable loom inevitably led

70
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:14,960
to the general-purpose digital computer. And at the risk of going a bit off topic,

71
00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:20,800
it's notable that not only did ancient engineers create a number of astonishing analog devices in

72
00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:27,200
complex machines, they also created their own steam engine. Writings from the 1st century BCE

73
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:32,800
by Roman architect Vitruvius describe a kind of simple steam engine. While it couldn't have been

74
00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:38,640
particularly powerful or efficient, it both worked and produced torque. With the information we have,

75
00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:44,080
it's unclear if this engine or anything like it was ever put to practical use. It may have been

76
00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:48,880
just a novelty or educational device used to demonstrate the physics of weather. It's fun

77
00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:53,600
to imagine, however, what would have happened if ancient scholars had continued developing this

78
00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:58,480
kind of tech? Could we have had an industrial revolution that began in ancient Greece rather

79
00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:04,240
than in 18th century Britain? Or, alternatively, will we wind up losing the knowledge we have now

80
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:08,880
only to rediscover it in another 2,000 years? Quick, print out this video's automatically

81
00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:14,000
generated transcript! Humanity depends on you! And I depend on the fact that you watched this entire

82
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,480
video for my happiness. Thank you for watching. Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if

83
00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:23,040
you disliked it. Check out this one, where we explain the difference between an analog and a

84
00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:26,960
digital computer. You probably already knew that, though. You're so smart.