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Decoding the Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculator: Antikythera Mechanism

54 points by HNLurker2 7y ago

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
devchix 7y ago
People built one out of Lego. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk
basementcat 7y ago
Something that I didn't fully appreciate until I had an opportunity to see it in the museum was just how small it was. I had assumed it was larger (perhaps easier to fabricate in my mind).
arnado 7y ago
He's been scarce for a while, but Clickspring on youtube has a series on rebuilding the Antikythera Mechanism. It's quite fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA/vid...
- acqq 7y ago
  As an introduction, there are some good documentaries on the Antikythera mechanism that can be currently found on the web.
- notatoad 7y ago
  his latest video mentioned that he's still doing some research for the antikythera project.
- sitharus 7y ago
  He ended up discovering something new about the mechanism and has spent the past few months working on a research paper about it. Hopefully it'll come out soon.
- Accujack 7y ago
  It's also worth mentioning that he's making it using historically appropriate techniques and tools. He shows making the tools first and explains the techniques for using them, and goes into detail on why he chose each tool or method. Fantastic videos.
rtkwe 7y ago
It's always shocking to me how much they were able to deduce from those fragments. Guess it really helps that gears are so evenly toothed so you can get a very good estimate of the total number of teeth just from a small segment. Also I wonder how many of these existed and were just lost to time by people melting them down after they broke or if this was a one off commissioned piece for someone (which seems somewhat improbable given the complexity, you'd expect there to be similar devices with less features).
coldcode 7y ago
It's easy today to imagine we are smarter than people 2000+ years ago, but it's more like we are standing on the shoulders of a ton of generations before us. I always wonder if I went back in time 2000 years from today, if I would be able to translate my knowledge at all into the limitations of back then. The folks who built this only knew what they knew back then or could imagine, but were still able to build this complex machine.
- java-man 7y ago
  Antikythera mechanism is pretty impressive, possibly the first complex computer. I think the next time we see devices of such complexity around 1,500 years later. Imagine where mankind could be if we did not have this "gap" in progress. In a similar vein, paintings in Chauvet cave [0] made somewhere 32,000-35,000 years before present far exceed those made much later (such as those found in Lascaux cave, ~17,000 years BP): they used curvature of rock to generate a subtle 3D effect, in addition to being, you know, near perfect capture of the animals at the time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
  - fit2rule 7y ago
    .. and then there are the anatomically interesting cave paintings of Gabarnmung: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabarnmung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabarnmung There is a .. crackpot theory .. around the notion of ancient intelligence, which I entertain as it is interesting to me as a fan of Szukalski as well as various neolithic cultural introspections: Australian aborigines are the original 'wise men', who travelled across the globe and taught other tribes how to harvest the land and cultivate animals. Gabarnmung was one of their original 'universities', and Gobekli Tepi, is another. Anyway, its a wild and not yet substantiated theory, but .. what if indeed ancient society really was a lot more advanced than we gave it credit? Certainly, many cultures overlooked in the rush to the moon, have their own deeply advanced aspects.
    - java-man 7y ago
dmolony 7y ago
[2006]
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
craftoman 7y ago
Ancient Greeks were 1000 years ahead of their time. The more you study about their history, the more you go crazy. For example the first vending machine or the automatic doors, or machines that working using steam. They were talking about robots (Talos) and had a God of Technology (Hephaestus). Some scientists believe that if Greeks didn't invaded by Persians or Romans and continued to give all this knowledge and technology to the world, we would have the industrial revolution 1000-1500 years earlier.
- Mobius01 7y ago
  Do you have some references or reading material on that? I wonder why some of the technological advancements were lost due to Roman invasion, since the Romans themselves were avid engineers and has great admiration for Greek arts. I know that Roman rulers in provincial Greece were exploiting it for maximum financial gain using awful methods (at least for some time), but still... if some of these technological advancements were well known you’d think the Romans would invariably adopt and expand on them as they’ve done with so much they encountered in other civilizations.

54 points by HNLurker2 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

devchix 7y ago

People built one out of Lego. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk

basementcat 7y ago

Something that I didn't fully appreciate until I had an opportunity to see it in the museum was just how small it was. I had assumed it was larger (perhaps easier to fabricate in my mind).

arnado 7y ago

He's been scarce for a while, but Clickspring on youtube has a series on rebuilding the Antikythera Mechanism. It's quite fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA/vid...

acqq 7y ago
As an introduction, there are some good documentaries on the Antikythera mechanism that can be currently found on the web.
notatoad 7y ago
his latest video mentioned that he's still doing some research for the antikythera project.
sitharus 7y ago
He ended up discovering something new about the mechanism and has spent the past few months working on a research paper about it. Hopefully it'll come out soon.
Accujack 7y ago
It's also worth mentioning that he's making it using historically appropriate techniques and tools. He shows making the tools first and explains the techniques for using them, and goes into detail on why he chose each tool or method. Fantastic videos.

rtkwe 7y ago

It's always shocking to me how much they were able to deduce from those fragments. Guess it really helps that gears are so evenly toothed so you can get a very good estimate of the total number of teeth just from a small segment. Also I wonder how many of these existed and were just lost to time by people melting them down after they broke or if this was a one off commissioned piece for someone (which seems somewhat improbable given the complexity, you'd expect there to be similar devices with less features).

coldcode 7y ago

It's easy today to imagine we are smarter than people 2000+ years ago, but it's more like we are standing on the shoulders of a ton of generations before us. I always wonder if I went back in time 2000 years from today, if I would be able to translate my knowledge at all into the limitations of back then. The folks who built this only knew what they knew back then or could imagine, but were still able to build this complex machine.

java-man 7y ago
Antikythera mechanism is pretty impressive, possibly the first complex computer. I think the next time we see devices of such complexity around 1,500 years later. Imagine where mankind could be if we did not have this "gap" in progress. In a similar vein, paintings in Chauvet cave [0] made somewhere 32,000-35,000 years before present far exceed those made much later (such as those found in Lascaux cave, ~17,000 years BP): they used curvature of rock to generate a subtle 3D effect, in addition to being, you know, near perfect capture of the animals at the time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
- fit2rule 7y ago
  .. and then there are the anatomically interesting cave paintings of Gabarnmung: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabarnmung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabarnmung There is a .. crackpot theory .. around the notion of ancient intelligence, which I entertain as it is interesting to me as a fan of Szukalski as well as various neolithic cultural introspections: Australian aborigines are the original 'wise men', who travelled across the globe and taught other tribes how to harvest the land and cultivate animals. Gabarnmung was one of their original 'universities', and Gobekli Tepi, is another. Anyway, its a wild and not yet substantiated theory, but .. what if indeed ancient society really was a lot more advanced than we gave it credit? Certainly, many cultures overlooked in the rush to the moon, have their own deeply advanced aspects.
  - java-man 7y ago

dmolony 7y ago

[2006]

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

craftoman 7y ago

Ancient Greeks were 1000 years ahead of their time. The more you study about their history, the more you go crazy. For example the first vending machine or the automatic doors, or machines that working using steam. They were talking about robots (Talos) and had a God of Technology (Hephaestus). Some scientists believe that if Greeks didn't invaded by Persians or Romans and continued to give all this knowledge and technology to the world, we would have the industrial revolution 1000-1500 years earlier.

Mobius01 7y ago
Do you have some references or reading material on that? I wonder why some of the technological advancements were lost due to Roman invasion, since the Romans themselves were avid engineers and has great admiration for Greek arts. I know that Roman rulers in provincial Greece were exploiting it for maximum financial gain using awful methods (at least for some time), but still... if some of these technological advancements were well known you’d think the Romans would invariably adopt and expand on them as they’ve done with so much they encountered in other civilizations.