The Antikythera mechanism is a 2,000-year-old computer

vox.com ^ | 5/17/2017 | brian resnick

[minnesota_bound]

Then politicians came along and have been stopping the progress of man ever since.

#10 Of course, there were geniuses back then, even in the Stone Age.

[Getready]

No retardation at the beginning.Disbelief...yeah.

[piasa]

We had a ‘retarded’ man in our little home town who couldn’t take care of himself but who could accurately solve - in his head and without paper to work on- any mathematical problem posed to him. He was a savant. He was well known about town for that, for loudly blurting out the change owed to shoppers before the clerk could, and for notifying everyone in a most insistent way of changes in the Daylight Savings Time as if his and everyone elses’ lives depended on it.

[piasa]

I guess it would be useful for predicting tides?

[utax]

“Fox News and Bill O’Reilly were the DEATH of the uber liberal written and televised news. God bless him!”

If only that was true. And O’Reilly referred to Free Republic to be a “far right” website.

[ptsal]

Post 15- note correction at the bottom of the article.

Correction: The article originally misstated the timeline of events that led to the discovery of the mechanism. The wreck off the coast of Antikythera was discovered in 1900 by a group of fishermen. It wasn’t until May 1902 that the Antikythera mechanism was identified by an archeologist (today is the anniversary).

[wally_bert]

His supporters among the “gods” were cheapskates.

Only one of whatever things he had.

Decent movie from what I remember.

[PIF]

The story of this machine has been on FR many times, but this time there is a unique finding:

"This was a level of technology that archeologists would usually date to the 16th century, not well before the first."

"Since Price’s assessment, modern X-ray and 3D mapping technology have allowed scientists to peer deeper into the remains of the mechanism and learn even more of its secrets.

"In the 2000s, researchers revealed text - a kind of instruction manual - inscribed on parts of the mechanism that had never been seen before.

"The text - written in tiny typeface but legible ancient Greek - helped them complete the puzzle of what the machine did and how it was operated. In all, it’s astounding.

"The mechanism had several dials and clock faces, each which served a different function for measuring movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets, but they were all operated by one main crank:

"Little stone or glass orbs that would have moved across the machine’s face to show the motion of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter in the night sky
The position of the sun and moon, relative to the 12 constellations of the zodiac
Another dial forecasting solar and lunar eclipses - and, oddly, predictions about their color. (Researchers guess that different colored eclipses were considered omens of the future. The ancient Greeks were a little superstitious.)
A solar calendar, charting the 365 days of the year
A lunar calendar, counting a 19-year lunar cycle
A tiny pearl-size ball that rotated to show you the phase of the moon
And this is pretty neat: another dial of the mechanism that counted down the days to regularly scheduled sporting events around the Greek isles, like the Olympics

"Again, the mechanics of this are absurdly complicated. A 2006 Nature paper plotted out a schematic of the mechanics that connect all the gears. It looks like this. Not simple."

"Researchers are still not sure who, exactly, used it. Did scientists build it to aid their calculations? Or was it a type of a teaching tool, to show students the math that held the cosmos together? Was it unique? Or are there more similar devices yet to be discovered?

"Its assembly remains another mystery. How the ancient Greeks accomplished this feat is unknown to this day."

---

This was found in one half of a sunken wreak in 1900 - the other half has not been found since.

The reasons why this sort of ancient tech is surprising today is that most of the knowledge of it was destroyed in with the burning of the Library of Alexandra by Mark Antony in his siege of Alexandra of 30 BC; of what survived that, was later burned during the muslim conquests of 647-720 AD; what remained after that was burned by Girolamo Savonarola, 1452-1498 AD during his rise to power in the Church. It is also possible that a few works survived in monasteries until the Kosovo War 1998-1999 AD when rampaging Albanian muslims burned dozens of Christian monasteries known to have had many unexamined ancient scrolls.

[LastDayz]

“The reasons why this sort of ancient tech is surprising today is that most of the knowledge of it was destroyed in with the burning of the Library of Alexandra by Mark Antony in his siege of Alexandra of 30 BC; of what survived that, was later burned during the muslim conquests of 647-720 AD; what remained after that was burned by Girolamo Savonarola, 1452-1498 AD during his rise to power in the Church. It is also possible that a few works survived in monasteries until the Kosovo War 1998-1999 AD when rampaging Albanian muslims burned dozens of Christian monasteries known to have had many unexamined ancient scrolls.”

I have always maintained that mankind’s technological growth was forever “stunted” by the loss of these vast reservoirs of knowledge.

Adjusting my tinfoil.... this destruction, by all outward appearances, was intentional.

Gives one pause as to the why.

[PIF]

Gives one pause as to the why.

```
Accident of war: 30 BC
Various religious teachings: 647-1999

[ShadowAce]

Forget CGI--Here's a youtube video series of a guy actually reconstructing the mechanism. It is a wonderful, calming, mesmerizing series.

[DigitalVideoDude]

I’m glad I got this far before posting the exact same link. :-)

[cloudmountain]

I’ve got a No Spin Zone door mat at my office. .....I love it. ...helps me gauge new clients based on their reaction to the mat. Bill is still out there. https://www.billoreilly.com/
Ah yes, the NO SPIN ZONE. You've got a good idea there. It will bring out the .... in whoever enters THAT ZONE.
I hope he's allowed to get back on the air someday.

================================================

Hannity is good except he never lets his expert guest speak without him cutting them off. ...his radio show is a little better but not by much.....
True. It seems that MOST commentators do that. Does Laura Ingram?

[cloudmountain]

Then politicians came along and have been stopping the progress of man ever since.
#10 Of course, there were geniuses back then, even in the Stone Age.

It's my opinion that human nature hasn't changed at all. There were ALWAYS geniuses:
politicians of some kind
jerks
aholes
dumba**es
bad leaders
worse followers

Back then there was virtually NO COMMUNICATION with people 100 miles away so nothing was known or communicated.
Now we get a continual, constant barrage of every detail of every kind. NOW we get to know when Kim Jong-un breaks wind...live, in color and surround-sound.

[cloudmountain]

No retardation at the beginning.Disbelief...yeah.

I remember reading that some cultures killed the new babies if they weren't perfect.
Also, way back when, there simply might not have been enough resources to keep the "imperfect" alive.
It doesn't matter now, does it? This country spends zillions of dollars keeping everyone alive for as long as possible, no matter that person's condition.

[cloudmountain]

We had a ‘retarded’ man in our little home town who couldn’t take care of himself but who could accurately solve - in his head and without paper to work on- any mathematical problem posed to him. He was a savant. He was well known about town for that, for loudly blurting out the change owed to shoppers before the clerk could, and for notifying everyone in a most insistent way of changes in the Daylight Savings Time as if his and everyone elses’ lives depended on it.

Those people USED to have the name: "idiot-savant."
Shades of the movie DELIVERANCE. I remember that the movie featured a banjo-playing "idiot-savant."

I imagine that the "retarded" man is probably in an institution now.

[cloudmountain]

“Fox News and Bill O’Reilly were the DEATH of the uber liberal written and televised news. God bless him!”
If only that was true. And O’Reilly referred to Free Republic to be a “far right” website.

I guess you haven't been around too many decades. If you had been you would realize that Fox News and Bill O’Reilly WERE the death of uber liberal written and televised news.

Those old networks really DID control the limited media and they really DID decide what was news, how much was to be reported, how much was NOT to be reported, whose names were to be ignored, denigrated, honored, etc.

Those old networks really did rule the world. THAT is why Fox News and Bill O’Reilly were constantly, CONTINUALLY vilified, defamed, reviled, belittled, scorned, insulted, attacked and verbally abused by the major networks:

From Wikipedia:
The Big Three television networks are the three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), CBS (formerly known as the Columbia Broadcasting System) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Until the 1980s, the Big Three networks dominated American television.

[utax]

““Fox News and Bill O’Reilly were the DEATH of the uber liberal written and televised news. God bless him!”

Oh brother! Turn on your TV (if you have one) or read a newspaper and get back to me about the death of liberal news.

And in the eyes of O’Reilly you (and other Freepers) are a far-right wingnut.

[JimRed]

Hannity is good except he never lets his expert guest speak without him cutting them off. ...

So-called experts are the root of many of our problems, I think.

[Nailbiter]

Tech ping