ΚΟΣΜΟΥ: Of the universe. Inscription on back plate, Antikythera Mechanism. X-ray computed tomography. Slice of Fragment B. Provided by: X-Tek Systems (Nikon Metrology)
prologue
On the website for the November 2023 issue, grunge It assumed that certain scientific questions “will not be answered within the next 50 years.” One of those questions concerned the Antikythera Mechanism. Author Michael Angelo Francisco asked, “Why were the Antikythera machines so ahead of their time?”
It will take less than 50 years to answer this question. I have already answered this in the book, The Antikythera Machine: The story behind the Greek computer genius and its demise.
overview
In the spring of 1900, Greek sponge divers were caught in a storm in the Aegean Sea that washed their ship onto the coast of Antikythera, a small island between Crete and the Peloponnese. When the storm subsided, sponge divers went looking for sponges. However, at a depth of about 50 meters, he discovered a sunken ship full of ancient Greek treasures. Among them was a stone-like artifact that archaeologists eventually discovered was the device that baptized the Antikythera machine.
For nearly half a century, scientists had no clue about this strange device with almost microscopic Greek inscriptions across its bronze body and intricate interlocking mechanical gears. The name Antikythera Machine was evidence of uncertainty and confusion among scientists. Antikythera specified the location of the discovery and the mechanism that it was some kind of machine. But even more surprising was the fact that scientists metaphysically rejected the nature of the Greek toothed gear system. The presence of bronze gears would have immediately convinced the observing scientists that the astronomical computer in front of them was a product of advanced technology. But that fact contradicted the mistaken preconceptions scientists had about the ancient Greeks and themselves. Their Christian metaphysics made it difficult to accept that the ancient Greeks had developed a superior civilization that included advanced astronomical knowledge, advanced mathematics, and metallurgy. They were under the illusion that the technological gifts embedded in the Antikythera machine were a product of modern Christian civilization.
Why was the Antikythera machine so far ahead of its time?
The truth came closer to reality in 1907, when the Greek scholar, scientist, astronomer, mathematician, and engineer suggested that Antikythera’s computer was similar to the mechanical universe of Archimedes. Only the German philologist Albert Röhm (1871-1949) came close. Cicero, a Roman politician and scholar of the 1st century BC, learned about Archimedes’ planetarium from a friend called Gallus. The planetarium or sphere reproduced solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, the heavens, the sun, and the movements of the heavens. The moon also contains planets that can be tracked with the naked eye, such as Aphrodite (Venus), Hermes (Mercury), Ares (Mars), Cronos (Saturn), and Zeus (Jupiter). According to Cicero, the same solar eclipses that actually occur in the sky occurred on the Archimedean sphere. Cicero was convinced that “there was more genius among those Sicilians.” [Archimedes] More than human nature can contain. ”
In 212 BC, the Romans assassinated Archimedes because his weapons wreaked havoc on the invading Roman army. The Roman general Marcellus, who captured Syracuse, sacked the Greek polis and brought Archimedes’ sphere among his spoils to Rome.
The next step in understanding why Antikythera’s astronomical computer was ahead of its time comes from the work of British physicist and Yale University history of science professor Derek de Sola Price. Masu. Price studied Antikythera’s astronomical computer for several years. In 1959, he spoke of the “science and technology” of the Antikythera computer. The ancient Greeks likely called it a tablet or meteoroscopion. “There’s nothing like this preserved anywhere else,” Price said. He likened the Antikythera Machine to the astronomical clocks in cathedrals built in Europe during the Renaissance, or to “modern analogue computers.” He considered the tablet/meteoroscopion “the venerable ancestor of all scientific hardware in existence today.” “It’s a little frightening to know that just before the collapse of their great civilization, the ancient Greeks were so close to our time not only in thought but also in science and technology,” Price admitted. World-famous science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke read Price’s article in a magazine. scientific american He studied the Antikythera Mechanism and went to Athens in 1965 to see the ancient device. He had letters of introduction and support from the Admiral. He visited the National Archaeological Museum in Athens three times before museum staff discovered fragments of his Antikythera machine. They stored the pieces in simple cigar boxes. Clark was disappointed that the Greeks were so indifferent to such a great treasure of ancient achievements. Far more important than his irritation with the Greek bureaucracy was Clark’s reaction to the fragmentation of the mechanism. Like Price, he was deep in thought. “Viewing this extraordinary relic is a deeply unsettling experience,” he wrote. “There are few activities as futile as ‘what if…’ type speculation, but the Antikythera mechanism actively enforces such thinking. Although over 2000 years old, the level represents [of achievement], our technology did not arrive until the 18th century…. If the Greeks’ insight had matched their ingenuity, the Industrial Revolution might have begun a thousand years before Columbus.By now [1975] We’re not just pottering around the moon. We could have reached the nearest star. ”
That’s true, but not because the Greeks “missed the breakthrough into experimental science.” The Greeks used experimental science to piece together computers. The reason why students of Antikythera’s computer refuse to consider why computers almost disappeared comes directly from metaphysics and history. Christians made Greece’s industrial revolution impossible. In the late 4th century, they burned the Library of Alexandria and otherwise destroyed centuries of ancient Greek human resources, infrastructure, and culture.
In 1971, Price revisited the fragments of Antikythera. He read a report from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee on gamma rays that reveal the insides of metals. He wrote a letter to the director of the Tennessee Institute, who put him in touch with the Atomic Energy Commission in Athens. The AEC included nuclear physicist Charambos Karakalos, who took X-rays of the Antikythera fragments at Price’s request. In the summer of 1972, Karakalos took hundreds of photographs of the debris. Using these images and a thorough and careful analysis of the device itself, Price took years to master its intricacies. His research convinced him that the Antikythera Machine was “one of the most important pieces of evidence for understanding ancient Greek science and technology.” He explained the reason as follows: The complexity of the gear design provides a more accurate indication of the advanced level of Greco-Roman “mechanical proficiency” than any surviving documentary evidence. He discovered that the Antikythera Mechanism was “a singular relic…” It is the oldest scientific and technological relic in existence, and the only complex mechanical device to have existed since ancient times. [It] Changing our ideas about the Greeks and making visible the more continuous historical evolution of one of the most important major lineages [of Greek science and technology] That is what makes us civilized,” he wrote.
![Enlarged view of the machine Auto-generated description](https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a-close-up-of-a-machine-description-automatically.jpeg)
X-ray of the back side of Fragment A showing meshed gears. Courtesy of X-Tek Systems (Nikon Metrology), the Antikythera Mechanical Research Project, and his Aristeides Voulgaris for modifying the image. Fragment A contains 27 of his 30 gears that remained in Antikythera’s computer. The tooth size is about 1mm.
Price’s findings from the fragments of Meteoroscopion speak to a golden age of Greek science. The era began with the teacher-pupil relationship between Aristotle and Prince Alexander of Macedonia. Aristotle, the philosopher and inventor of science, filled young Alexander’s head with science, political virtue, and political and scientific ideas about how to build a community of civilization.
![Pictures of people in the room Auto-generated descriptions](https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/a-painting-of-people-in-a-room-description-automa-scaled.jpeg)
Archimedes (left), Aristotle (centre) and their students (Alexander the Great in military uniform, Demetrius Phalereus between Alexander and Aristotle, Theophrastus and Strato on the far right). Mural above the entrance to the University of Athens. Aristotle gives Stratton a knife to dissect the bird.Photo: Evagelos Barrianatos
Alexander conquered Persia and became Alexander the Great. He and his generals carried out Aristotle’s plans, especially in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria became a metropolis of scientific research, employing the best minds of the Greek world. The Mechanism of Antikythera/Meteoroscopion was born out of that climate of wealth, science, wisdom, and political moderation. The University of the Mouseion and the great library of Alexandria provided an ideal environment for science and the public good.
Antikythera Mechanism/Meteoroscopion A masterpiece of mechanical engineering. It united heaven and earth. The faceplate of the device was a cosmos, with the sun in its center. By superimposing two gears and using an ingenious pin-and-slot mechanism, the astronomical computer was able to recreate the moon’s elliptical orbit around the Earth. Pointers mapped the positions of planets, phases of the moon, and major constellations in the sky. On the back plate he had two spirals. The large spiral at the top represents the Metonic calendar of 19 years and 235 months. And the downward spiral was the Saros prediction dial for March 2018. It predicted an eclipse of the sun god Helios and Selene/Moon. Predictions included the Olympics and other Panhellenic competitions. The entire astronomical device was about a foot long and several inches wide. More than 30 bronze gears power the dial and hands. Approximately 27 of the gears were inside Cosmos Fragment A. The handle moved the cosmos.
epilogue
The Mechanism of Antikythera/Meteoroskopion was probably built on the island of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC. Hipparchus, the greatest astronomer of ancient Greece, oversaw its creation, modeled after Archimedes’ spherical/mechanical universe. It was the second Parthenon, built with science, technology and astronomy, and predicted the Olympic Games and the will of the gods: the sun god Helios and Selene/the moon. He also provided the Greeks with an accurate calendar and a practical means of exploring the universe. Without a doubt, the Antikythera Machine was the greatest achievement of ancient Greece. The Mechanism of Antikythera/Meteoroskopion was the pharos/lighthouse that illuminated the sciences and virtues of Greek civilization. It helped the Greeks see and enjoy the new world made possible by the achievements of science. There are still seeds of ways to build better computers that bring people together and focus their attention on the public good.
Note
1. Cicero, Republic I.14.21–22, tr. Clinton Walker Keyes (Loeb, 1928). ↑
2. Derek de Sola Price, “An Ancient Greek Computer,” Scientific American, 200 (6) (1959) 60–67. ↑
3. Arthur C. Clarke, “Technology and the Limits of Knowledge,” in Frontiers of Knowledge, edited by Brooke Hindle, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 120–121. ↑
4. Derek de Sola Price, “The Gears of the Greeks: The Machine of Antikythera – Calendar Computers Circa 1960” 80 B.C., Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association, 1974, 64 (7) 13. ↑