Quote: (07-16-2017 03:08 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:
Calling it a computer is a bit far fetched lest we want to start calling the early mechanical clocks computers as well. If anything, this is an elaborate mechanical clock similar to the other such clocks commissioned by European aristocracy in the 18th and 19th centuries used to track astrological transits in the sky.
It's remarkable in its complexity and age. Those Greeks were a clever bunch.
Yeah, I am not technical enough to tell what is a computer and what is not.
You give this thing an input (a date) and it returns an output (planetary constellation) and it does this through an algorithm, albeit mechanical, not much different than IO.
I'm thinking, someone able to do this, how far are they from making a more general purpose machine?