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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
 Posted - 08/01/2008 : 17:00:43 [Permalink]
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The more I read about this thing, the more impressed I am. Considering its one of a kind nature (to us anyway), I wonder about the maker. Had to be a virtuoso for the time.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2008 : 20:05:45 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
The more I read about this thing, the more impressed I am. Considering its one of a kind nature (to us anyway), I wonder about the maker. Had to be a virtuoso for the time.
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I am equally impressed.
It's occurred to me that devices such as the Antikythera Mechanism are closely related to the Ptolemaic theory of epicycles.
Epicycles were an attempt in the 3rd Century BCE to describe the movement of planets in an earth-centered cosmos as a function of complex celestial machinery.
The Antikythera Mechanism, from the middle of the 2nd Century BCE, may have developed from a hundred years or so of attempts to physically model the epicycle theory.
I'm imagining, just as the ancient philosophers had to keep adding more complex, nested systems of epicycles in order to eliminate prediction errors in their theory, so too did the philosophers and craftsmen making computers such as the Antikythera Mechanism have to keep adding more gears and tweaks for accuracy.
I suspect the philosophers overseeing the development of the Antikythera Mechanism and its like were members of the Ptolemaic school that created that geocentric epicycle theory.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 08/01/2008 23:22:56 |
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Grounder
New Member
United Kingdom
2 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 08:10:44 [Permalink]
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| Thanks. Wish I could watch that here in the Philippines, but no. And welcome to Skeptic Friends Network, Grounder! |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Grounder
New Member
United Kingdom
2 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 15:53:58 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Thanks. Wish I could watch that here in the Philippines, but no. And welcome to Skeptic Friends Network, Grounder!
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Thank you, HalfMooner. I found a YouTube link for you. Enjoy it while you can:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h89uTq6URiw |
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ThorGoLucky
Snuggle Wolf
USA
1487 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 20:12:29 [Permalink]
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| Super, Grounder! Loading it now, before BBC has it pulled down. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 21:43:37 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Super, Grounder! Loading it now, before BBC has it pulled down.
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I just watched it. Really good! |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 22:58:38 [Permalink]
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Ah, that was wonderful! It goes to show that the greatest discoveries sometimes require a close cooperation between different specialties. In this case, archaeology, astronomy, history, digital image enhancement, mechanics, linguistics, x-ray technology, and computer modeling were some of the fields contributing to assembling this terrifically complex puzzle.
The ancient Greeks were extremely clever to be able to put this highly accurate mechanism together, and especially to be able to make it take elliptical orbits into consideration. My hat is off to both the ancients and their genius, and to the modern people who reverse engineered this mystery. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 06/05/2012 23:00:05 |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 23:58:37 [Permalink]
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| I suspect aliens. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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