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The 2000 Year-Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
07-16-2017, 03:08 PM
Calling it a computer is a bit far fetched lest we want to start calling the early mechanical clocks computers as well. If anything, this is an elaborate mechanical clock similar to the other such clocks commissioned by European aristocracy in the 18th and 19th centuries used to track astrological transits in the sky.
It's remarkable in its complexity and age. Those Greeks were a clever bunch.
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The 2000 Year-Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
07-16-2017, 04:59 PM
It's an analog computer. Analog computers have quite a history. The US Navy used them for aiming the guns on battleships, etc. for a long time. WW2 bombsights, etc. Another example is the remote aiming of the guns on the B-29.
Another famous example:
http://museum.mit.edu/150/22
Computers went from people(title of person) > mechanical (analog) > electrical (analog) > electrical (digital)
If only you knew how bad things really are.
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The 2000 Year-Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
07-16-2017, 09:19 PM
It's a wonderful device, certainly, but it's probably more an example of great engineering than great science as such. The Mechanism isn't particularly accurate when it comes to predicting orbits -- it can be nearly 40 degrees off on Mars' position, for example -- but that's a product of the limitations of Greek knowledge at the time it was built. It certainly takes into account Greek models of planetary orbits of the time ... which is to say, 87 BC. Therefore its predictions don't take into account Ptolemy's work (around roughly 150 AD) and Kepler's Second Law in the 17th century. That aside -- the same level of workmanship did not appear again until around the 14th century or so, there is nothing to doubt that it's an incredible piece of machinery for its time.
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The 2000 Year-Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
07-16-2017, 10:03 PM
That was a cool documentary. That engineer dude who recreated it is a genius.
I'm sure there are tons of other inventions and pieces of ancient technology that we'll never discover. Part of me likes to think a modern civilization existed way before the Sumerians but no trace has been left behind. Anthropologists are working with a tiny fraction of evidence and information. If a meteor hit or Yellowstone erupted, evidence of our civilization would probably disappear after a few thousand years.
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The 2000 Year-Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
07-16-2017, 11:48 PM
Cool as shit
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The 2000 Year-Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
07-17-2017, 03:34 AM
Can it run Witcher 3 with maximum graphics at 30 fps?
If not then it's crap.
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The 2000 Year-Old Computer - Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism
07-17-2017, 04:22 AM
Quote: (07-17-2017 03:34 AM)Mage Wrote:
Can it run Witcher 3 with maximum graphics at 30 fps?
If not then it's crap.
It can't do that, but it
can predict the next conjunction of the spheres.
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