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2,100-Year-Old Antikythera Device Recreated In Working Form

Posted by timothy on from the probably-nothing-more-than-an-electrical-meter dept.

coondoggie writes "A new working model of the mysterious 2,100-year-old astronomical calculator, dubbed the Antikythera Device, has been unveiled, incorporating the most recent discoveries announced two years ago by an international team of researchers. The new model was demonstrated by its creator, former museum curator Michael Wright, who had created an earlier model based on decades of study."

18 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Poor guy should have asked around by Skyshadow · · Score: 5, Funny
    I feel bad now, I could have saved him years of work -- I still have an original Antikythera 01 on my desk here at work.

    I keep asking my boss for a new machine, but apparently the quad-core boxes are reserved for managers with important work to do like using Powerpoint and surfing for softcore pornography.

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    1. Re:Poor guy should have asked around by empesey · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're wasting your time. I picked mine up at the Antik Road Show.

  2. ,100-Year-Old Antikythera Device Recreated in Work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm prokythera, you insensitive clod.

  3. Why so down? by elysiuan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Surprised with all the negativity. Studying cryptic machines that change the way we view technology's historical progression and after years of work crafting a working replica hardly seems worthy of scorn.

    1. Re:Why so down? by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They are just down because they didn't come up with it first.

      Plus people like to take pride that we are much more advanced then we were 2000 years ago.
      However after the burning of the Library of Alexandra it sent man kind 1000 years back in progress. The thousands of years after have been in general very tough for human survival only for the past 500 years or so have we caught up, but before that the concept of playing with gears and realizing that if you have a small one and a large one they move at different speeds was to academic and in general worthless as it didn't put food on the table.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Why so down? by kandela · · Score: 5, Funny

      First uttered by the Librarian of Alexandra 1000 years ago, "I'll back it up tomorrow."

      --
      Conservation of angular momentum makes the world go round.
  4. i am afraid by sleepy_sanchez · · Score: 5, Funny

    and so starts the story of Sylar, the villain watchmaker.

  5. Antikythera by EdZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thank goodness we're prepared for when the sinister Kythera device is unearthed.

  6. Re:Really? by 2short · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not that the mechanism is amazing by modern standards that is interesting. It's not not even that the mechanism must have been amazing by the standards of the time when it was manufatured. It's that the mechanism is amazing by the standards of at least 1000 years after it was apparently manufactured. Historians find stuff like that interesting; sorry you're not impressed.

  7. Failed Order by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's a good chance that it was a custom job made for Hipparchus, either for his lab or to impress the king.

    "Hi, this is Hipparchus. I placed a custom order for an Antikythera about 8 months ago."

    "Oh, we shipped that out. It looks like there was a problem with the delivery... Ah, here we go. The boat sank."

    "What? I've got to present that next week!"

    "I'm sorry, did you buy shipping insurance? It doesn't show here on the invoice that you paid for insurance."

    --

    ---
    ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    1. Re:Failed Order by hotdiggitydawg · · Score: 5, Funny

      I see you are a Dell customer...

  8. Judging by the above coments... by nitsnipe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It looks like Digg has invaded slashdot. Anyways, The fact that 2 millennia ago some were able to make a calculator to predict eclipses is astounding, taking into consideration the religious beliefs and the gullibility of the masses on those times.

    1. Re:Judging by the above coments... by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, especially as it was those religious beliefs that allowed this device to be created in the first place, or did you miss the part about the Babylonian priests? Good God, can't you people get off your Anti-Religion Flaming Horse for one thread a day?

      --
      Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
  9. What putz tagged his !tech? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You do realize that technology existed prior to computers, do you not? How the heck is this not technology?

            Brett

  10. That's crazy talk! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I keep asking my boss for a new machine

    That's crazy talk. If you keep that up you'll soon be in charge of legacy systems. No, this is not a troll!

  11. No wireless. Less space than a nomad. by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Lame.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  12. Re:It's sad, not amazing by tick-tock-atona · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, much Greek and Roman knowledge was retained and built upon by the Islamic Empire during the Islamic Golden Age, from the 8th to the 16th century.

  13. Re:In that case.... by ideonode · · Score: 5, Funny

    Beowulf imagined a cluster of one of these!