Found an interesting article on research regarding the Antikythera Mechanism.

Wikipedia Wrote:The Antikythera mechanism (/ˌæntɨkɨˈθɪərə/ ANT-i-ki-THEER-ə or /ˌæntɨˈkɪθərə/ ANT-i-KITH-ə-rə) is an ancient analog computer[1][2][3][4] designed to predict astronomical positions and eclipses. It was recovered in 1900–01 from the Antikythera wreck, a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera.[5]

New research suggests that the device may be as old as 205 BCE.

Sadly, the knowledge that went into creating the device was lost for a very long time. How much farther might we have progressed scientifically and technologically had much of the ancient knowledge of the Greeks and others not been lost?

Cool! I was just reading up on it the other day for a talk on planets. They had all kinds of stuff implemented which was ahead of their time, such as some effects only properly treated by ptolemy centuries later...

Quote:The finding supports the idea, scientists said, that the mechanism’s eclipse prediction strategy was not based on Greek trigonometry, which did not exist at the time, but on Babylonian arithmetical methods borrowed by the Greeks.

But the Greeks had overrun the Persian empire well over a century before 205. They would have had access to whatever they found there and Alexander's treatment of the Persians was lenient. Cooperation would have been expected.

(November 29, 2014 at 6:55 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Sadly, the knowledge that went into creating the device was lost for a very long time. How much farther might we have progressed scientifically and technologically had much of the ancient knowledge of the Greeks and others not been lost?

I wonder how much bigger my portfolio would be if my stocks never lost value.

Having periods where the sum of human knowledge crashes is natural and not something to be lamented. It is just the way the world works.

Not that the destruction of the library of Alexandria or religious intolerance had anything to do it.

Heywood,
Living now in our technological industrial society, you are in a deceptively comfortable situation to make that kind of proclamation... Seems a bit very privileged to me.

Seems a bit asinine to me but I have come to expect that from Woodie.

(November 30, 2014 at 12:14 pm)Alex K Wrote: Heywood,
Living now in our technological industrial society, you are in a deceptively comfortable situation to make that kind of proclamation... Seems a bit very privileged to me.

I am privileged....and so are you.

I imagine that you know more things today then you did 10 years ago. Nevertheless I am sure you have learned stuff and then forgotten what you learned. If this is true of every individual....why shouldn't it be true of the collective?

(November 30, 2014 at 12:37 pm)Heywood Wrote: I imagine that you know more things today then you did 10 years ago. Nevertheless I am sure you have learned stuff and then forgotten what you learned. If this is true of every individual....why shouldn't it be true of the collective?

Because the collective only forgets when it's overrun or taken over by morons.

The technology and knowledge embodied in the antikythera device is AFAIK hinted at in no other known Greco roman artifact, nor referred to in writing. This suggests at least the technology, and probably the knowledge, were never recognized even in its own time as being significant, nor became any part of the corpus of knowledge transmitted either amongst the educated classes, or amongst tradesmen.

So antikythera device might well be a one off thing, the little appreciated flash of inspiration of one forgotten genius, like the tank or flying machine of Leonardo Da Vinci. It does not represent an entire lost branch of socialized or utilized knowledge and technology 17 centuries ahead of its time.