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 ...
Now THAT'S funny!
LOL
That would be the Roman Republic. The empire didn't come until AFTER Julie died 150 years after this period.
The inscription clearly read "Delta Sigma Phi".
yitbos
Well, the dark/blue screen age began to flicker and dim when theologians spent whole generations on such vital questions as : how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Or : are good and evil equidistant from eternity? Or : aristotle didn't say how many teeth are in a horse's mouth, as the monks argued this question; ans : you go out and LOOK in the HORSE'S MOUTH, you horse's ***! Along comes the Renaissance and Sir Francis Bacon : if you find something useful, then USE it...and let the pinhead theologians mumble away for all eternity. As Ronald Reagan asked YOU : What great thing have YOU ever done? Or as Jesus observed : a tree is known by its FRUIT.
ROFL
Billus Gatus marketed it better.
Too funny! BTW, I'm glad you saw the "Windows BC" comment; I almost pinged you to it, but thought, 'Nah, he probably gets too many unwanted pings as it is.' Don't want to clutter your New posts to you section!
LOL ! ! you are NUTS....N.V.T.S
Are they kidding? This was on The History Channel three years ago. Nice scoop.
I thought so, and didn't the guy that recreated the device speculate that it was probably used for astrology?
btt
Those models of yours were either incomplete or only hypotheses of how the actually computer looked/functioned. Only pieces of the machine have apparently been found, and scientists merely surmised the rest.
Rather than it being a European culture back then, Greece was more of a Mediterranean culture (part of Rome, also Mediterranean) containing the (at least formerly) powerful civilizations of Egypt, Carthage, Greece (not so powerful, but they made many innovations), Asia Minor, Babylon, and Assyria.
In any case, there was about (not as much, but more than you might suspect) as much technology transfer around the world as there is today.
To be picky: the Romans were the first to widely implement the arch, not necessarily invent it.
Just pointing it out.
Several peoples had the ability to enter the industrial revolution in the past, but for one reason or another didn't make it.
The actual Greek fire is still unknown, after being lost by the Eastern Romans (or Byzantines).
It sure aas heck didn't have a general purpose OS like Linuxicus or Solarium on it.
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