Astronomy, engineering and a 2000 years old computer.

[Kev2442]

While reading the description of Techmoan's latest video (if you like old tech and don't know this guy yet, it's epic), he mentioned an extraordinary documentary from the BBC, right here :


I'm not much of a documentary guy (prefer reading Wikipedia at my own pace), but that one was fantastic. Looks like they didn't want me to go to bed

So what do you guys think of this ? Have you seen that already, did you know about this machine ? Pretty curious to see how many did...

Also, do you have any other examples of such great technological marvels from History to share ?

 

[flowen8]

Here is one that I found,

 

[Kev2442]

I've heard of similar automatons before, but just not quite as advanced at this one. The programmable letter was the icing on the cake. (and the moving eyes were a little frightening at the end)

 

[Klumpen]

Here is one that I found,

I've got an audio book from a humble bundle in relation to this, it's called "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and is available at Scholastic Audio, wasn't bad.

 

[sulu]

I believe I've seen that documentary a few years ago. If it wasn't this one then it was another one dealing with the Antikythera mechanism.

If by "technological marvels" you mean astronomical devices, then there's a whole lot of other examples. Stonehenge, Woodhenge, the Nebra sky disk, the pyramids of the Egypts and Mayans come to mind, and I'm sure I'm missing at least a dozen other examples I've heard about.
If you mean something that moves and computes something, then you'll find a whole bunch of analog computing machines constructed within the past 2000 years. And I'm not even scratching ancient China here due to lack of knowledge.

It's all quite impressive, but part of that impression is, because we "modern" people often underestimate the capabilities of old cultures.
For example the principles of electricity and the steam engine were known to the ancient European civilizations. They just didn't realize the potential, because their economies were largely based on cheap slave labour. Combine that with their use of flowing water for domestic use and heating and all the basics for our current state of civilization were there 2000 years ago on a level probably comparable to the early 19th century in Europe. They just took a different path and had the bad luck of running into a massive collapse of society.
Which makes me think, what people in 2000 years from now will think about our civilization.

 

[Klumpen]

And I'm not even scratching ancient China here due to lack of knowledge.

Unfortunately there is a lack of knowledge about the scientific state of ancient China in general, even Kong-Fuzi (Confucius) complained about that bitterly since he always tried to gather lost knowledge which was supposed to be a bloody lot in the area.

It's all quite impressive, but part of that impression is, because we "modern" people often underestimate the capabilities of old cultures.
For example the principles of electricity and the steam engine were known to the ancient European civilizations. They just didn't realize the potential, because their economies were largely based on cheap slave labour.

That's the point, technology is doing what slaves would do otherwise: Making the life of the ruling class easier, as soon as the slaves demand equal rights by force, machines have to do it since human society generally isn't based on fairness and sustainability, because in reality, greed, gluttony and sloth aren't seen as sins but rather as virtues.

Combine that with their use of flowing water for domestic use and heating and all the basics for our current state of civilization were there 2000 years ago on a level probably comparable to the early 19th century in Europe. They just took a different path and had the bad luck of running into a massive collapse of society.
Which makes me think, what people in 2000 years from now will think about our civilization.

I've just recently seen the movie "Automata" and although it wasn't the best movie and basically just an attempt to explain Asimov to non-nerds, the fun part is that all the technology in the end led to the destruction of society and creating new slaves in the form of robots, showing how circular human culture is developing indeed. I won't spoil the end although it's rather obvious. At least the story has a (clearly transhumanist) morale.

 

[rygD]

@Klumpen The Measure of a Man

I will check out that movie.

 

[Caine]

That Antikythera documentary was quite interesting.
I heard about the device before, but this went into some more depth than I knew about it. Thank you for posting it.

Here is one that I found

Wow, even at 1.5 times the normal speed, that video is slow.

 

[sulu]

human society generally isn't based on fairness and sustainability, because in reality, greed, gluttony and sloth aren't seen as sins but rather as virtues.

Do you know the talk "Warum schweigen die Lämmer?" by Prof. Rainer Mausfeld of University Kiel, respectively his public work as a psychologist in general, that became kind of popular recently?

 

[Klumpen]

Do you know the talk "Warum schweigen die Lämmer?" by Prof. Rainer Mausfeld of University Kiel, respectively his public work as a psychologist in general, that became kind of popular recently?

Never heard of it, what's it about?

 

[sulu]

It's a scientific talk about the reasons on how and why masses of people can be controlled by "leaders" and how the latter refined their methods of control to a point where the people (you and me and everyone else) don't even realize anymore that they are basically "remote-controlled".
It adresses (future) experts (students of psychology), but is understandable for laymen too. Just listen into the talk [1] for 10 or 15 minutes! Despite (or maybe because) of Mausfeld's calm and clinical analysis you'll probably be so absorbed by it by then that you can't stop listening to the rest. When I found the talk I had to see the following discussion [2] too, and got to bed after 3 a.m. (on a week day).

If you want even more, then search for "Mausfeld" at [3]. There was also a recent interview with Mausfeld at KenFM [4] concentrating more on current politics from a psychologist's POV.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx5SZrOsb6M
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNt8HWY0Eto
[3] http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwRNpeWj5Cs

 

[elwing]

Here is one that I found,

That automaton is right in the village where I live... and it's quite impressive live

 

[ible]

Here is one that I found,

super creepy and awesome at the same time.

maybe i've watched too much Top Gear, but i half expected the guy, as he was leaning into the boy at the beginning, to lose his balance and smash it all to pieces.

 

[Binky]

Not a computer, as such - but I'm always amazed by the smoothness of the neck articulation on the silver swan:

 

[lukey]

BTW here an small Video series about how Mechanical (Analog-)Computers work (Skip to 1:57 for the interesting stuff):

Interesting that after 2000 Years the very same way of calculating was used here.
If the Greeks would have known about Steam Machines we would be here, at this stage of technical advancement at least 1000 Years sooner.

 

[sulu]

If the Greeks would have known about Steam Machines we would be here, at this stage of technical advancement at least 1000 Years sooner.

They knew:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

 

[Klumpen]

They knew:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

As described and appearing in Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods" which i'm currently reading, what a coinscidence.

 

[edlee]

The Chinese had a lot of knowledge that was lost, because, as I understand, rulers occasionally ordered all of the past writings to be burned and the holders of that knowledge to be executed. That may happen again, and people 1,000 years from now might wonder how people created such wonderful things as electronic computers, such as the Pandora and Pyra, because the knowledge to create such things may be lost. According to Wikiquotes:

Reporters at Bikini [the test site for a nuclear weapon] were questioning an army lieutenant about what weapons would be used in the next war. "I dunno," he said, "but in the war after the next war, sure as Hell, they’ll be using spears!"​

 

[Caine]

As described and appearing in Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods" which i'm currently reading, what a coinscidence.

It's not a coincidence if the odds are exactly a million to one.