Regardless of where this thread ends up on the definition of 'computer', I guess the more interesting question is: how close might these folks have been to buil

Regardless of where this thread ends up on the definition of 'computer', I guess the more interesting question is: how close might these folks have been to building something like Babbage's engine? If you had to introduce programmability, memory etc. -- no matter in how rudimentary a way -- how (few) steps away is it from the existing design? I'm no computer scientist but it feels like the Greeks would surely have figured it out pretty quick (after one of them put in a PRD for a general arithmetic calculator of course).