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If you're in Athens, the Herakleidon museum has not only an exhibit about this, but about all sorts of other advanced Greek technology: coin-operated vending ma

If you're in Athens, the Herakleidon museum has not only an exhibit about this, but about all sorts of other advanced Greek technology: coin-operated vending machines, drink-serving robots, water-powered telegraphs, etc. While this specific device may (or may not) have been a one-off, it's undeniable that ancient Greece was basically the real-life version of a Steampunk-based society. (With the caveat that ancient Persia probably had similar technology at one point also, but most of that has since been destroyed by the British and others throughout history.)

hyhconito 2y ago
Oh damn it. Missed that one entirely. I will have to come back again.
- jcims 2y ago
  Same!!! I just asked chatgpt “Based on what you know about me, what do you think I would be interested in seeing in Athens?” The Herakleidon Museum was third on the list. May have to try this again in the future.
  - hyhconito 2y ago
    Never thought of using it for that. Annoyingly I’m in Athens right now but flying back tomorrow way too early to sneak a visit in :(
    - jcims 2y ago
      That airport is a bit of a haul. :/
      - hyhconito 2y ago
        Was even worse last week. Got off plane and metro was on strike.
  - dwighttk 2y ago
    what does chatgpt know about you?
    - fragmede 2y ago
      As you chat with it, it'll pick up random details from conversations (eg owns a cat) and stick it into a limited memories folder, which can be manually inspected and cleared out as desired.
Terr_ 2y ago
> water-powered telegraphs This phrasing oversells it a bit too much: The water wasn't a power source and there was no long distance movement of it. They signaled between users with the light of a burning handheld torch, and the duration of the light corresponded to predefined messages. Water was used at each end for independent stopwatches, to measure the duration of the light. It's easy to imagine an equivalent system using sand hourglasses. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_telegraph#Greek_hydraulic_semaphore_system https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_telegraph#Greek_hy...
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hyhconito 2y ago

Oh damn it. Missed that one entirely. I will have to come back again.

jcims 2y ago
Same!!! I just asked chatgpt “Based on what you know about me, what do you think I would be interested in seeing in Athens?” The Herakleidon Museum was third on the list. May have to try this again in the future.
- hyhconito 2y ago
  Never thought of using it for that. Annoyingly I’m in Athens right now but flying back tomorrow way too early to sneak a visit in :(
  - jcims 2y ago
    That airport is a bit of a haul. :/
    - hyhconito 2y ago
      Was even worse last week. Got off plane and metro was on strike.
- dwighttk 2y ago
  what does chatgpt know about you?
  - fragmede 2y ago
    As you chat with it, it'll pick up random details from conversations (eg owns a cat) and stick it into a limited memories folder, which can be manually inspected and cleared out as desired.

Terr_ 2y ago

> water-powered telegraphs This phrasing oversells it a bit too much: The water wasn't a power source and there was no long distance movement of it. They signaled between users with the light of a burning handheld torch, and the duration of the light corresponded to predefined messages. Water was used at each end for independent stopwatches, to measure the duration of the light. It's easy to imagine an equivalent system using sand hourglasses. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_telegraph#Greek_hydraulic_semaphore_system https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_telegraph#Greek_hy...

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