WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.280 What was the first computer? Well, that depends a lot on what you mean by computer. 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:09.600 I mean, we're all used to stored program, general purpose, digital computers, 00:00:09.600 --> 00:00:12.800 but those have only been around for less than a hundred years. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:17.600 The first, ENIAC, or the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:22.640 was created for the U.S. military and was completed only in 1945. 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. 00:00:28.880 --> 00:00:33.440 People whose primary role is to quickly do large amounts of math have existed 00:00:33.440 --> 00:00:37.680 as long as complex societies have, thanks to things like taxes. 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:42.160 However, if we want to know what the first formal computational tool was, 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:45.200 well, an obvious candidate is the abacus. 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. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:55.280 If you were on my team, yes, but if I was playing against you, definitely not. 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, 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:05.520 well, the first known computer is still surprisingly ancient. 00:01:05.520 --> 00:01:10.800 The Antikythera mechanism is a bronze mechanical device about the size of a large book 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. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:21.920 The device was found to contain surprisingly small interlocking gears, 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. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:34.160 Its purpose was, most likely, to calculate how the positions of the sun, the moon, 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. 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, 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. 00:01:52.080 --> 00:01:58.080 While it's unlikely that this kind of complex mechanism was common 2,000 years ago, 00:01:58.080 --> 00:02:03.440 it raises the possibility that other oddly advanced devices from the era once existed 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, 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, 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:20.320 and the astrolabe, another kind of star chart which could be used to track heavenly bodies 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:24.960 and solve spherical trigonometry problems, making it useful for navigation. 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 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:35.600 computers. According to Chinese writings, engineer Ma Jun created what is called a 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. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:47.280 The doll would sit atop the roof of your chariot, and it would point continuously 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 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:58.800 wheels, keeping the device pointed the same direction it was set to at the beginning of 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:02.880 the journey. For cultural reasons, they were set to point south. 00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:07.760 If that seems odd, just remember, modern magnetic compasses don't actually point 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:12.960 north. They align themselves with the globe's magnetic field, meaning they point both north 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. 00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:23.840 In any case, this kind of old-school GPS had some pretty serious limitations. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:30.160 With modern technology, we can create extremely precise gears. But small inconsistencies in these 00:03:30.160 --> 00:03:35.120 third-century gears would compound over the course of even relatively short journeys, 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:40.560 causing the device to gradually drift over time. Realistically, you'd only be able to travel 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:45.600 a few miles before that drift became significant, and its orientation would need to be reset. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:50.800 And that's before the gears started to wear unevenly with use. Also, a mechanical device 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 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:03.600 machine? One possible candidate for the world's first programmable machine is found in the Book 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 00:04:09.440 --> 00:04:15.520 year 850. The book describes a number of mechanical devices, including an automatic water fountain, 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 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:28.480 water-powered organ. Both instruments could be programmed by swapping out a cylinder with raised 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:34.400 pins indicating notes in order to play different music. You can find a similar cylinder mechanism 00:04:34.400 --> 00:04:39.600 in modern-day wind-up music boxes, which have largely been replaced with TikTok. 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:46.480 Arguably, the first analog computers that wound up widely used by the average person were clocks. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.960 Human beings have been trying to devise more and more precise methods of measuring time for 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. 00:04:57.200 --> 00:05:01.520 Tried basically everything. While the average hunter or farmer probably didn't need to know 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 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, 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. 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 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:28.640 Antikythera mechanism, and was created by the mathematician Archimedes. It was water-powered, 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 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. 00:05:42.400 --> 00:05:46.080 Fully mechanical clocks wouldn't arise until the 12th century. 00:05:46.080 --> 00:05:49.440 Mechanical calculators wouldn't come about until the 17th. 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, 00:05:55.280 --> 00:06:00.720 lost, rediscovered, reinvented, and passed back and forth between different civilizations. 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 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:10.720 off the industrial revolution, and that the invention of the programmable loom inevitably led 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:14.960 to the general-purpose digital computer. And at the risk of going a bit off topic, 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 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:27.200 complex machines, they also created their own steam engine. Writings from the 1st century BCE 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 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:38.640 particularly powerful or efficient, it both worked and produced torque. With the information we have, 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 00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:48.880 just a novelty or educational device used to demonstrate the physics of weather. It's fun 00:06:48.880 --> 00:06:53.600 to imagine, however, what would have happened if ancient scholars had continued developing this 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:58.480 kind of tech? Could we have had an industrial revolution that began in ancient Greece rather 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 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:08.880 only to rediscover it in another 2,000 years? Quick, print out this video's automatically 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 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 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 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:26.960 digital computer. You probably already knew that, though. You're so smart.