[zw123456]

If it is a computer that predicts astronomical events, seasons etc. as is theorized by some, and if it was built more than 2000 years ago presumably before people understood how the solar system works (I think back then it was not understood that the planets revolve around the Sun) then they must have based the design on a large number of observations recorded over time. If so, then it is also the first application of "big data" in that an algorithm was developed based on data and implemented using a mechanical computer.

[chithanh]

Not quite. Heliocentrism was introduced around 270 BC by a Greek astronomer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism

The oldest estimates for the Antikythera Mechanism are 205 BC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

So it is very well possible, if not likely, that the builders of the Antikythera Mechanism were aware of the heliocentric model.

[_Codemonkeyism]

Amazing. Also amazing to me is the caluclation of the size of the moon and distance of the earth from the sun around the same time [1] [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances_(Ar...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipparchus#Distance,_parallax,...

[burtonator]

They might have been "aware" of it the way people were aware of Evolution before Charles Darwin.

Even Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's grandfather) discussed evolution but Charles really filled in the gaps.

So it might have been an early developing model with discussion among contemporaries before it really "landed".