The astrolabe! Digital technology recreating ancient analog computers! - Jes Wolfe at !!Con 2024

The Astrolabe! Using modern digital computing to recreate ancient analog computers For fifteen hundred years, the astrolabe was the most widely-used computing device on earth, sometimes called “the original smartphone”. They were traditionally made by hand, but I had to find out: how hard would it be to design and make one using only digital design and computer-controlled fabrication methods? Jes Wolfe is a software developer and payments engineer in Portland Oregon, whose code has almost certainly handled some of your money at some point. They spend their free time misusing technology, doing space math for astrologers, and helping their six-year-old invent new integer sequences. Presented at !!Con 2024 (pronounced, of course, "bangbangcon"!) in Santa Cruz, CA -- https://bangbangcon.com/ !!Con is a production of the Exclamation Foundation -- https://exclamation.foundation/ Video Production by Confreaks Follow Confreaks 👇 https://confreaks.com https://x.com/confreaks