Ancient Computer on PBS NOVA

[ShopShoe]

Watched this program last night on my local PBS station.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ancient-computer.html

Incredible engineering by ancient Greeks, possibly Archimedes. Engineer (Multiple-interest guy like us) in Britain re-engineered it: Fascinating use of sliding slot/pin gear linkage to provide variable-speed periodic cycle on one gear to simulate elliptical orbit of moon and variable speed related to distance to earth.

Watch it if you can.

--ShopShoe

 

[robcas631]

I have......the gears are amazing. As to which Greek created it is still in question.

 

[Admin]

I saw the start of it but went to bed early because my son has been up at four for a week now.

I really liked what I saw. I can't imagine being the guy that discovered it with all the statues on the ocean floor.

 

[Lew Hartswick]

Yep, I watched it. Some good detective work involved there.
Simplest solution as to how it occurred: "A time traveler" Just like old Leonardo.

...lew...

 

[robcas631]

The man taking a coin size piece of brass and dividing up the gears by using a compass is talented! Work a view people!

 

[Tin Falcon]

A couple of links for those who do not want to take an hour to watch the video although not boring or repetitive like some TV..



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


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eUibFQKJqI[/ame]


this guy makes gears by hand and a nicely equipped garden shed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18448518




google The Antikythera mechanism

Antikythera computer
Ancient computer
and there is a lot of Links out there


Tin

 

[dman]

amazing video. the ancients never fail to impress us. proves that reason and super intelligence is not a modern invention we only have more knowledge and world wide communication to give us technological advantages.

 

[Admin]

I think had we not lost a ton of knowledge to the Dark Ages we would be advanced in ways we can't understand. Hero of Alexandria was creating steam engines so long ago who knows what the technology would have been at now had we not gone through that era.

 

[wildun]

I believe that there is more lost technology in this earth than we could ever dream of, much of it seems to have been lost and plundered by stupid people during wars and revolutions or in great climatic changes.
This Greek computer was only one of many mysterious things of course - my pet interests would be in trying to find out how massive blocks of stone were cut from hard rock faces almost perfectly flat on each of the six sides! - all over the globe.
Then there was the great library at Alexandria (containing most of the world's scientific knowledge) which was sacked looted, burnt down and one of the worlds great scientists (a woman) who was the curator of the library, was taken out to the street and torn apart by the religious fanatics of the day.
Then there are the graves containing well preserved mummified tall fair haired and brown haired European like people, who apparently lived in central China, yet genetic tests are showing that they are of Asian origin and possibly have migrated originally from maybe as far north as Siberia but it seems that they had many ethnic origins so I guess they could have been classed as cosmopolitan. - and they lived there 3000 to 4000 years ago! till their environment dried up and they died out or eventually became integrated with the Chinese.
There's a lot of things we don't know a lot about, which make our little engineering feats look trivial!
Still we're happy in our little community, whatever may have gone on in the past!

 

[robcas631]

Did the Greeks or anyone at that time in history have the capability to create this " ago old" artifact? I am not discounting the find, just asking it's age.

 

[Tin Falcon]

the reproduction was recreated with hand tools. the gears can be and were made using math dividers and hand tools. Historic records and accounts elude and point to the existence of such a device.
From reading articles and watching the video there was a lot investigative to verify that the artifact was indeed part of the ships cargo not just happened to be found in the same place.
Tin

 

[OrangeAlpine]

The authenticity of the find has never been in question, other than the "scientific" rationalization that goes something like "If we can't explain it's existence, or see why anyone would do it, it ain't real".

Bill

 

[n4zou]

I think had we not lost a ton of knowledge to the Dark Ages we would be advanced in ways we can't understand. Hero of Alexandria was creating steam engines so long ago who knows what the technology would have been at now had we not gone through that era.

I think humans have gone through more "Dark Ages" than we know. We advance technology to a point where we end up destroying ourselves with it. Consider the discovery of an ancient city beneath the Cambodian jungle. When you consider thousands of people living in that vast city their level of technology mandates the use of what we would consider modern infrastructure. That technology rots away to dust if not preserved and that which does not rot away is recycled for uses by later generations that have no idea what it's original purpose was for. What would happen to a firearm made of stainless steel? It would be hammered into tools that don't rust and keeps a sharp edge. Eventually it will be worn away as primitives sharpen it with smooth river stones. What if our civilization collapsed? Billions of people would starve to death and the children of the few remaining survivors will not have access to any sort of education except that required for just surviving. After a couple of generations we are again back in the stone age and humans start all over again with no knowledge of a past technologically advanced civilization.

 

[OrangeAlpine]

I think humans have gone through more "Dark Ages" than we know. We advance technology to a point where we end up destroying ourselves with it. Consider the discovery of an ancient city beneath the Cambodian jungle. When you consider thousands of people living in that vast city their level of technology mandates the use of what we would consider modern infrastructure. That technology rots away to dust if not preserved and that which does not rot away is recycled for uses by later generations that have no idea what it's original purpose was for. What would happen to a firearm made of stainless steel? It would be hammered into tools that don't rust and keeps a sharp edge. Eventually it will be worn away as primitives sharpen it with smooth river stones. What if our civilization collapsed? Billions of people would starve to death and the children of the few remaining survivors will not have access to any sort of education except that required for just surviving. After a couple of generations we are again back in the stone age and humans start all over again with no knowledge of a past technologically advanced civilization.

Ain't that the truth!!

Bill