Post: #1

If any of you is looking for a good "mind blown" video, then this would be it:





It's about an ancient Greek (50bc) "computer" which can predict, among other things, solar and lunar eclipses years in advance, down to the hour of the day and the color of the eclipse, as well as the movement of the celestial bodies.

It's essentially an algorithm except in copper and not electricity. It's extremely sophistacted.

It is believed that it was actually a product of the legendary Archimedes.

Post: #2

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.

Post: #3

It's reasonable to call it a special purpose (mechanical) computer, technically, but most laypeople don't know what that means.

The Clickspring guy from Youtube is doing a series on the Antikythera mechanism, where I suppose he's trying to reproduce it with period tools. I haven't watched any of the videos from that specific series but his videos are usually excellent.

http://www.clickspringprojects.com/videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKC.../playlists

Post: #4

(07-16-2017 03:08 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  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.

Yeah, I am not technical enough to tell what is a computer and what is not.

You give this thing an input (a date) and it returns an output (planetary constellation) and it does this through an algorithm, albeit mechanical, not much different than IO.

I'm thinking, someone able to do this, how far are they from making a more general purpose machine?

Post: #5

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)

Post: #6

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.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #7

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.

Post: #8

Cool as shit

Post: #9

Can it run Witcher 3 with maximum graphics at 30 fps?

If not then it's crap.

Post: #10

(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.