A 2,000-year-old Greek device is often called the world's oldest analog computer.
Why this sounds fake
Computers feel electronic and modern, so a geared calculator from ancient Greece sounds impossible at first.
A computer from ancient Greece sounds like a category error. The Antikythera mechanism was recovered from a shipwreck and is now famous as a geared calculating device. Britannica describes it as an ancient computer used for astronomical and calendar calculations. It was not electronic and it was not a laptop. It was a mechanical device for tracking the sky, which is still far more advanced than most people expect from 2,000 years ago. The surprise is how modern the idea feels: gears, prediction, and calendar math in an ancient object.
Nothing remotely like the Antikythera mechanism shows up again for 1,400 years — the band between them is empty.
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