[OT] Antikythera mechanism [was Re: Do have programs have poor documentation?]

[Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net>]

Talk about a thread going South!  (Perhaps we can get back to bashing 
systemd?)


On 12/30/16 7:07 PM, deloptes wrote:
> > In what way is the Antikythera mechanism not a computer?  And where did
> > your 400 years come from?
>
> I understand what you mean, but it was in the last 400y that this machine
> took shape. In fact it was Turing that defined it. But he would not be able
> to define it if it was not the mathematicians before him. I agree with you
> as well, we could go to the roots of mathematics, however even if the
> definition of such a machine was so old, it wouldn't be possible to build
> it without the technical advantage, so ... I still think my statement is
> true. You can argue as long as you will.

Well, you kind of forget:
Joseph Jacquard (and maybe Basile Bouchon)
not to mention Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelance
Alonzo Church.
And of course,  John von Neumann (if you want to talk actual hardware 
architecture)


--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra