How the Ancient Greeks built the first computer - Max G. Levy

In 1900, Greek divers stumbled upon a 2,000-year-old shipwreck whose contents would shake our understanding of the ancient world.

Among the remains were fragments of mangled wood and corroded metal, which archaeologists soon realized contained an intricate series of gears, resembling technology not believed to exist until centuries later.

By the 1950s, scientists began to understand what they'd found.

These fragments were part of a device that could calculate the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets.

Now known as the Antikythera mechanism, this instrument appears to be the oldest geared device ever discovered and humankind’s first computer.

Most modern devices, like your phone or laptop, are examples of digital computers.

These systems store information in strings of zeros and ones that they can then convert into images on a screen or sounds in a speaker.

But more generally, a computer refers to any device that stores information and can convert it from one format into another.