The computer, at its core, is an input-output device: it receives instructions, executes programmes, performs calculations automatically and produces results.
By this fundamental definition, China’s ancient ti hua ji , or figured loom – dating back more than two millennia to the Western Han dynasty – may well be recognised as the world’s earliest computer, according to the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST).
Unearthed in 2012 from a tomb dated to around 150BC in Chengdu, southwestern China, this sophisticated silk-weaving machine made use of programmable computation. Its “programme” came in the form of physical pattern cards – the ancient equivalent of software – which directed the lifting of individual warp threads according to a preset design.
A raised warp thread represented 1, while a lowered one represented 0.
It is the world’s oldest known “computer hardware”, with corresponding “software” – the figure loom programme, CAST said in a video posted on its social media account on December 27.
CAST is China’s largest official scientific body. Its entry into the global debate over who invented the first computer , and the public endorsement of the Chengdu loom as proto-computing hardware, signals a growing momentum to rewrite technological history from a non-Western perspective.