Posted on 11/29/2006 11:41:47 AM PST by Alter Kaker
A computer in antiquity would seem to be an anachronism, like Athena ordering takeout on her cellphone.
But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece. Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.
The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world’s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers was able to decipher many inscriptions and reconstruct the gear functions, revealing, they said, “an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period.”
The researchers, led by Tony Freeth and Mike G. Edmunds, both of the University of Cardiff, Wales, are reporting the results of their study in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Did The Ancient Greeks Make A Computer?
An Article | 1977 | Lionel Casson
Posted on 11/01/2003 12:21:03 PM EST by Holly_P
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1012790/posts
Was it invented by Greeks or Geeks?
Or Billius Portae.
"Once again, scientists have to revise their ideas on something."
And you would prefer what, that they stick with ideas in the face of contradictory evidence? That they never come up with any ideas they can't be 100% sure are completely correct?
Actually, all the inventing was done by Steveus Wozniakus----Jobbus just put it in a pretty box and handled the marketing.
Yup--that's how the "scientific method" works. Stupidity is being confronted with evidence and NOT changing your ideas on something.
Billius Portae never invented anything. He just bought old stuff, repackaged it and sold it to I.B. Emmus.........
Oooh... the Commodoreus LXIV :-)
But nobody remembers poor old Steveus Wozniakus..........
In his family's horse stable near the Acropolis?
Or Zorba, the Geek.
Ah, but can it download pr0n?
Lemme guess, the first software written for it was "Nero".
We're probably looking at a time when Greece was part of the Roman empire, depending on the date it was made and when it was on the ship. Evidently it was made earlier, but sank about 65 BC.
Rome was full of Greek teachers at that time, and Greek was the language of the eastern part of the Empire. Many Romans learned Greek, too. So, maybe it could be considered a combined product.
The Greeks were very mathematical and inventive, but the Romans tended to be good engineers. They were the ones who invented the arch and the waterwheel.
LOL!
LOLOLOL!
Revising ideas is simply part of the scientific method: You come up with a hypothesis, you devise an experiment to test it, and you revise the hypothesis based on the results, and set up the next experiment.
However, with Archeology the ability to set up experiments is dictated by the arbitrary availability of records and artifacts which limits the effectiveness of the scientific method substantially in many cases.
Thus it is fallacious to support Archaeological evidence as "scientific" in the sense of areas of study where the scientific method works better.
P.S. Don't point out that the same flaw in the "evolution is science" arguments that many seem emotionally vested in unless you are prepared for their emotional outburst of irrational snarkiness.
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