
Antikythera Mechanism - EndXA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
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jhalstead
For anyone interested, the Clickspring YouTube channel is recreating the
Antikythera Mechanism.

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-
Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA)

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utopcell
The Clickspring creator hasn't provided updates for months on his Antikythera
reconstruction, but recently he updated his patreon supporters of the reason
why: He has discovered something new about the mechanism, previously unknown,
that he is working on publishing. Fascinating!

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minxomat
Ohh exciting. I saw this thread and wondered what happened to that project.

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summner
On my recent vacations to Athens I visited National Archeological Museum where
the Antikythera is displayed. I highly recomend seeing this device and its
recreations live there.

Especially seeing the recontructioned devices gave me completely new
perspective about ancient Greece.

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glangdale
I had a friend in honours year computer science who did a project on
tomography of the antikythera mechanism (working on image analysis software to
remove ghost images of other layers), and helped discover why his advisor's
previous model of the mechanism was mechanically immobile (when you turned it,
it locked). He'd discovered that an axis seen end-on was actually 2 axes, if I
remember correctly.

Amazingly enough he forgot to mention this in the end of year presentation of
his work, so I got to ask that question to remind him... talk about burying
the lede.

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drexlspivey
This guy on youtube is crowdsourcing a series where he is recreating the
mechanism
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML4tw_UzqZE&list=PLZioPDnFPN...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML4tw_UzqZE&list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4RXv4_jDU2)

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sgt101
I like the fact that these devices were well attested in history
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism#Similar_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism#Similar_devices_in_ancient_literature))
but still such a surprise when they appeared in archeology.

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utopcell
It is as if knowledge about them was methodically wiped off history, or more
likely (since history is written by non-engineers) it was not understood well
enough to write about it.

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ken
No need to posit a conspiracy here. People died, and there weren't enough new
people entering the field to learn it all before the critical mass of
knowledge died with them.

I believe that the bulk of knowledge, in most fields, is passed from person to
person through active practice, not through books. Books, as a cheap way to
widely distribute knowledge, are relatively recent innovation, and most of
what I know about any topic is not written in books. Or if it is, it's almost
an afterthought, not the primary method of knowledge transfer. What book did
you read to learn to tie your shoes, or drive a standard transmission?

On a related note: what is humanity's Bus Factor for creating a CPU? I know a
little about semiconductors from school but I certainly wouldn't know where to
start, even for a tiny 8-bit one. I doubt Intel writes down everything they've
figured out. Could 2 or 3 especially unlucky "city-killer" asteroids send us
back to a pre-information-age society?

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axaxs
This seems to happen a lot. One people seem to keep chasing is Damascus steel.

Even in more recent history, too. I like to research fine weapons. Apparently
the process Colt used on their pistols to color and shine them is completely
undocumented and now unknown. Similarly, it's said there are not enough people
alive that know how to handfit a revolver. I'm not sure how true the latter
is, but really makes you wish Wiki or the internet existed further back.

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dboreham
Also, supposedly, the styrofoam used inside thermonuclear weapons.

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dang
Plenty of previous discussion:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Antikythera%20comments%3E0&sor...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Antikythera%20comments%3E0&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

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djmips
And how does posting a Wikipedia article link make it to near the top of
Hacker news?

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inflatableDodo
Firstly someone has to create a mechanical calculating technology that is lost
to history before being discovered in a shipwreck by a society that has
globally networked its modern equivalent. After that it gets complicated.

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walrus01
For people that want to try this with a good quality 3d printer:

[https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1821540](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1821540)

I recommend 0.1 layer height and conservative settings for a slow, but high
quality print.

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akkartik
Jonathan Blow draws some interesting implications of discoveries like this one
in a recent talk: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-
SOdj4Kkk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-SOdj4Kkk)

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person_of_color
Any 3D printed versions?

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6thaccount2
There is a really cool LEGO version someone built and you can see on YouTube.

