Antikythera
Lonely Planet: Greece (10th edition)
Distance from first location in guidebook: 148 miles
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The Antikythera Mechanism (c.87 B.C.) proves how sophisticated Greek technology was. Possibly constructed by the school of Posidonius (135?-51? B.C.), on the island of Rhodes, it was found by Greek sponge divers in 1900 near the island it is named for. Corroded and encrusted by twenty-one centuries of undersea exposure, X-ray examination revealed a complex mechanical computer in the Archimedean tradition of planetary construction. The differential gear arrangement is composed of thirt-one gears with teeth formed by equilateral triangles. When past or future dates were input through cranks, the mechanism calculated the position of the sun, moon or other astronomical information such as the location of other planets.
Derek De Solla Price, its main chronicler, argues for its place above mere orrery. “Nevertheless, it does use fixed gear ratios to make these calculations of the soli-lunar calendar and it does this more by using pointer reading on a digital dial then by causing a direct geometrical modelling of the planets in space.”
The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest example of a calculating device that processes information through gearing to achieve an answer. Price speculates that it may have been mounted on a statue and located with other automata in a high technology chamber. Pindar (c.520 B.C.) in his seventh Olympic Ode, speaks of the animated images of Rhodes and Crete,
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
Move their marble fee.
One wonders if the technology of the Antikythera Mechanism was ever directly coupled to the automata of its day in a manner similar to that of the Scribe discussed later in this chapter. Perhaps some day the discovery of other ancient technical wonders will force us to once again reconsider our robotic heritage.
As Price points out, this epoch marked a big change in man’s view of himself. Man rivalled the gods as a builder of miniature universes and this conceit is complemented by man’s desire to play god by building automata in the human image. The Antikythera Mechanism may have exhibited with automata as a method of displaying both halves of creation. While no one then or now believes that the stars move by clockwork or that ropes move limbs, the Antikythera Mechanism and similar machines fostered the mechanistic philosophy and were important agents for transferring mechanical technology to the present.
Via Robot Evolution by Mark E. Rosheim
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Via wondergreece.gr