This 1959 computer plays Boards of Canada's "Olson"

In 1962, MIT student Peter Samson transformed a hulking DEC PDP-1 computer into a musical instrument. His ingenious "Harmony Compiler" program converted the machine's four status lights into square-wave voices, with each flicker producing a distinct note.

Today, the Computer History Museum maintains what's believed to be the last functioning PDP-1 in existence. When loaded with Samson's original paper tapes, the vintage machine continues to glow and sing as it did in MIT's early computing days.

Sixty-three years later, the same hardware performed Boards of Canada's 1998 track "Olson." The modern composition was meticulously transcribed into just 603 bytes of code, punched onto fresh paper tape, and fed into the museum's preserved processor. The result was a hauntingly beautiful bridge ac