The first computer

Reading about the first computer which was designed to help codebreakers at Bletchley Park who were trying to decipher the Lorenz which was the German’s next-generation encryption machine which succeeded the more famous Enigma.

The first computer was called Collosus and used vacuum tubes instead of transistors to toggle bits. It has been said that the Antikythera mechanism, created over 2,000 years ago, could also be considered the first computer.

I find the interface where mechanical devices transition into computers very interesting. For the Antikythera mechanism, instead of having programmed logic which comprises a “program” to run on the device, you can kind of think of all the different gears of the device as hard-coded code dedicated to run a specific program. The user interface consisted of a lever which the user turns to choose the time for which the program outputs its information, in the form of the readings of the various dials indicating the positions and other attributes of multiple heavenly bodies.

Collosus is much closer to a contemporary computer but still at the transition point where mechanical meets electrical/digital/logical which is really cool.

On this note, even a loom can kind of be considered a computer. They are programmed by the user to sometimes create complex patterns and their output is actual woven fabrics.

Humans are amazing creatures to create such things and it’s really sad how our societies, our cultures, and even our entire planet is so fucked up at the moment with mass immigration, overpopulation, and ecological catatstrophe.