“The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient mechanical computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was recovered in 1900–01 from the Antikythera wreck. Its significance and complexity were not understood until decades later. Its time of construction is now estimated between 150 and 100 BC. The degree of mechanical sophistication is comparable to a 19th century Swiss clock. Technological artifacts of similar complexity and workmanship did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks were built in Europe.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
To LegoGeeks:
www.scientificamerican.com/video.cfm?lineup=1406165298&id=704706701001
Impressive. Too bad it was probably used for astrology.
Then Christianity infected the Roman Empire, and the world had to wait thousands of years before reaching this level of technology again.
in b4 /aliens/
@... AlecDalek. Right, Chrsitianity did it, not the hordes of pagans assaulting the empire.
Whoever did it deserves the worst fate, here we see something made by someone, probably various individuals, going in the right direction, and like AlecDalek said, we were set back thousands of years before we could pick it up again. That’s damn sad.
ITT: People conveniently forget that Greek technology like this was lost when the Roman Empire defeated the Corinthians and killed all the smart dudes.
To some extent. The Romans’ interest was more devoted to infrastructure and war machinery.