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Ancient Loom: World's First Computer Unearthed in China

1/2/2026

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Summary

Story summary

The China Association for Science and Technology says ti hua ji, a figured loom, may be the world's earliest computer.
Dating to the Western Han dynasty, the loom was unearthed in 2012 from a tomb in Chengdu.
It used programmable computation through pattern cards to lift warp threads, with each raised thread representing 1 and each lowered thread representing 0.
The loom's program was shared in a video on December 27.

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Story summary

The China Association for Science and Technology says ti hua ji, a figured loom, may be the world's earliest computer.
Dating to the Western Han dynasty, the loom was unearthed in 2012 from a tomb in Chengdu.
It used programmable computation through pattern cards to lift warp threads, with each raised thread representing 1 and each lowered thread representing 0.
The loom's program was shared in a video on December 27.