Analog computers were the most powerful computers for thousands of years [video]
Nice try Veritasium, but I’m afraid that as clever as these pen wiggles are. the defining characteristic of computers[cience] is the calculation of discrete, discontinuous functions…<p><pre><code>  if sunday:
     store_closed
  else:
     store_open
</code></pre>
These analog “computers”, despite their historic name and ability to compute continuous functions, don’t meet the bar for what it means to be a computer.<p>It’s like saying a spring balance is an atomic computer because it adds up the masses of all the atoms on the balance to give you a mass in grams.<p>That’s not to say that non-electronic logic circuits haven’t been built in the past.  They have been built with fluid,
marbles, redstone etc. but I don’t know if they were ever used in antiquity to perform calculations.  All the examples I know of were built in the computerized modern era.<p>(Let’s not get started on whether a machine with separate memory for data and code can count as a computer.)