The earliest device used to calculate was the abacus. This number crunching device has been found in use as far back as the Sumerians, circa 2700BC. The abacus can be found throughout Asia, the Middle East, and India through ancient history. Don’t worry, the rate of innovation always speeds up as multiple technologies can be combined. Leonardo da Vinci sketched out the first known plans for a calculator. But it was the 17th century, or the Early modern period in Europe, that gave us the Scientific Revolution. Names like Kepler, Leibniz, Boyle, Newton, and Hook brought us calculus, telescopes, microscopes, and even electricity.  The term computer is first found in…