100 B.C. Computer Was 1500 Years Before Its Time

The Antikythera Mechanism has received lots of attention and has been the subject of previous posts on ATS. Some say it was the invention of Archimedes, the great scientist and engineer of Greece. Other say it had to be of alien origins. This article focuses on the mathematics involved in the engineering of the device. Math doesn't lie. Math doesn't get emotionally involved in theories or engage in defensive posturing. Math is truth. Something is equal to something, or it isn't. Something can be proven, or it can't. And, for this analysis, we'll need that kind of simplicity to weed through all the hype.

Imagine discovering a hidden room in a European medieval castle. As you open the room, you find an iPhone sitting on the table. That would mean the iPhone was invented in 1000 A.D. But, we know that it really wasn't invented until the 21st century. This analogy describes the discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism in 1900 A.D. This technologically baffling device is believed to have been created around 100 B.C., shortly before it was sunken in a Roman shipwreck off of the island of Antykythera near Greece. Though the device was badly corroded and many parts completely deteriorated over the 2000 years it was submerged in the sea, its secrets have recently been unlocked by researchers using X-ray and Gamma ray analysis.

The Antikythera Mechanism (as it has been titled) is believed to be the first computer ever invented since it is the oldest complex calculator created in ancient times. This device is an astronomical calculator that accurately tracks the movements of the sun and moon and predicts eclipses, lunar cycles and seasons. It is important to understand that this device was amazingly advanced for its time. It was so advanced that no other device with similarities in mathematics and engineering was invented for over another 1000 years when a much simpler and much larger eight-geared lunar/solar calculator was built into an astrolabe by Al-Biruni. (The pager compared to the iPhone.) While Astrolabes were conceptualized as early as 150 B.C. by Hipparchus and much more primitive versions were being created around 600 A.D. we have to stop and examine the timeline of history between the creation of the Antikythera Mechanism and the invention of Kepler's 3 Laws of Planetary motion which enabled the sophisticated math present in the 32+ gears of the mechanism to be conceived. Approximately 1500 years AFTER the Antikythera Mechanism was created, Kepler unlocked the advanced calculus required to accurately describe the movements of the Moon, Earth, and the other planets around the Sun with the accuracy shown in this relic. This includes the abnormalities found in all the elliptical orbits of these heavenly bodies.

View this article, (pay attention of the timeline) then bring your perspective on how this device could have been created 1500 years prior to the discovery of mathematics that enable its function.

The Mathematics of The Antikythera Mechanism

-Kanu

a reply to: KanuTruth

I've often wondered how many of these were made. This couldn't have been the only one, just that it was preserved. Where there was one, there were plenty more.

a reply to: Aleister

Imagine if we only got lucky enough to find one, what else has been lost since that time?

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: KanuTruth

I've often wondered how many of these were made. This couldn't have been the only one, just that it was preserved. Where there was one, there were plenty more.

Imagine the amount of time that went into this device. What happens if it were per say a prototype being shipped to academia to study and replicate? Chances are the original creator (s) died, or the technology was completely lost. I think we might have found the proverbial needle in the hay stack. I can only imagine what else was lost to time.

JV

There was reports, of a bush shaman who uses Binary math to solve multiplication and division problems. OF course, it could of been influenced by the outside world, we can't really know, but it seems it is a part of his shamanic tradition.

The reason I say this, is because thats now, in the middle of no where, a man figured out the basis for modern computing, or at least some shaman did and passed it on.

Humanity, as it is now, has been around with the same cranial capacity for some 150-200k years, and we see evidence that 100BC had a complex mechanical computing device.

Think of the knowledge required to build a mechanical computer, from advanced math, metallurgy, clock making, etc.
It is a staggering to contemplate.


Now think,

200k years.

We went from the most advanced form of travel being a horse, to the moon in less than 200 years.

a reply to: benrl

Wasnt it even closer to 70 years?

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: benrl

Wasnt it even closer to 70 years?

Was using 200 to echo 200k years of mans existence.

Also being very generous in time scale for nit picking as well.

When did the Industrial revolution really start? OR It could be argued that ____ truly started the march forward, etc.

Stuff like that.

But yea, very quickly people put a few ducks in a row that lept us forward in tech, in a very short time.

Who knows if thats happened before, could of been several "Sparks" of civilization that have been lost to the march of time.

OOPARTS seem to point to something going on in our past that we don't know about.

a reply to: benrl

What line of thinking or where did this all spawn from do you think? The telephone or communication?

I link advancement with our connection

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: benrl

What line of thinking or where did this all spawn from do you think? The telephone or communication?

I link advancement with our connection

Human ingenuity, No more, no less.

If supported by society as a whole, it can do wonders.

Hell, even alone in the wilderness, a shaman can come up with Binary.

I sometimes feel living in a world that has all these wonders handed to us, that we forget, it was all done by people just like you and me.

The Human brain, in all its complexity, is the single greatest tool this planet has ever seen.

a reply to: KanuTruth

TO put it the most simply: human knowledge isn't a collective knowledgebase, and it was even less so in 100 bc.

3 steps forward, 2 steps back...that was the dance that got us here.

a reply to: KanuTruth

Ah, you mentioned:

Approximately 1500 years AFTER the Antikythera Mechanism was created, Kepler unlocked the advanced calculus required to accurately describe the movements of the Moon, Earth, and the other planets around the Sun with the accuracy shown in this relic.

Why do we owe Kepler the status of him "unlocking" advanced calculus, when it could have been discovered and lost way before his time. Do not underestimate humanity my friend.....A lot of knowledge was lost in Alexandria and other ancient repositories of knowledge. I have a suspicion that the Vatican has some of it. Hmm..


Kratos

a reply to: benrl

Was using 200 to echo 200k years of mans existence.

You were within ten years actually. First full scale working locomotive (train) was built in 1804. It definitely replaced the horse.
Wikipedia: History of Rail Transport

a reply to: KanuTruth
I'm going to indulge my inner pedant and point out that the Antikythera Mechanism was not "before its time," but, by definition, a product of its times. The Greeks had a highly advanced Number Theory that allowed them to spot mathematical patterns, and transfer numerical and geometric relationships from one medium to another. (Eg; string length and pitch.) The mechanism is surely remarkable, but it is fully grounded in what was contemporary science. They did not understand the physical nature of the Solar System, but they did understand the ratios of planetary periods. This in no way should detract from the sheer brilliance of the device.

There have been (to my knowledge) at least two reproductions of the Mechanism, one virtual and one physical.

Edit to add: www.antikythera-mechanism.gr...

I bet that the math was known by someone a long time before most would think today.
trade secrets were trade secrets.
the recent discovery of how the "Cross" was actually a measuring device used for navigation.
(see my sig thread ) appears to go back over 25,000 years ( citations at link)

information produced by the antikythera device, or from at least tables, would have been a critical part of the process.

obviously whoever built the pyramids( a cross was seen in a sealed shaft) knew some complex math then.
(star charts at 10,000 BC )
pythagorean theorem, among other things, would have been a necessary part of the math, and was probably considered proprietary knowledge for initiates only.

the rest of us not being in the club, got religion instead

a reply to: benrl

Imagine the power that came from possessing this device. Given the limited knowledge of science and strong beliefs in mysticism and supernatural by the common person of 100 B.C., the owner of this device could use it to seem like a god. You would be able to predict eclipses and orchestrate the belief that you, using your divine powers, were creating the event. This device would empower the owner to rise to wealth, power and prestige. Maybe that's why it is so small. Its mobile and easy to hide. It would turn a 1st century B.C. "David Copperfield" into a "Son of Zeus".

originally posted by: Danbones


the rest of us not being in the club, got religion instead

HAHA! That was a good one. Star.

originally posted by: Danbones
I bet that the math was known by someone a long time before most would think today.
trade secrets were trade secrets.
the recent discovery of how the "Cross" was actually a measuring device used for navigation.
(see my sig thread ) appears to go back over 25,000 years ( citations at link)

information produced by the antikythera device, or from at least tables, would have been a critical part of the process.

obviously whoever built the pyramids( a cross was seen in a sealed shaft) knew some complex math then.
(star charts at 10,000 BC )
pythagorean theorem, among other things, would have been a necessary part of the math, and was probably considered proprietary knowledge for initiates only.

the rest of us not being in the club, got religion instead

The Pythagorean Theorum likely came from India, as you can see evidence of that knowledge from times predating Pythagoras by centuries.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: benrl

Wasnt it even closer to 70 years?

Not really. There were trains in the early 1800s running on steam power.

The BBC produced a nice documentary on this:

The 2000 Year Old Computer

Near the end it speculates that the knowledge behind this device lingered on and found its way back into Europe through Spain, leading to the redevelopment of clockwork devices.

a reply to: KanuTruth

It's nothing really new. Heron of alexandria for example was a genius when it came to mechanics. Wrote entire books. So what happened? Well the great city was taken over by zealous religious followers and burned the great library. Only a handful of books, schematics, etc survived.

Another example as well is the discovery of the world not being flat, and documented round. Or that the sun was the centre of many planets. So I think there was an ancient computer, we just lost how to make one.