Antikythera Mechanism and Other Oddities

[RPG Post]

Antikythera Mechanism and Other Oddities

In 1900 a device was discovered in a wrecked Roman ship, off the coast of a Greek island: Antikythera. Or rather a lump was discovered that eventually split apart, and someone noticed it contained gears. As more advanced forms of imaging and x-ray technologies became available, someone noticed that the device was very, very complex. How complex?

From an article on IO9.com.

“The findings, published in Nature, are probably best described as "mind blowing." Devices with this level of complexity were not seen again for almost 1,500 years, and the Antikythera mechanism's compactness actually bests the later designs. Probably built around 150 B.C., the Antikythera mechanism can perform a number of functions just by turning a crank on the side.”

The Antikythera Mechanism is a time keeping and astronomical device that accurately predicted the exact time of eclipses; moon phases; sun, moon and planets position against the zodiac; even kept tabs on the Olympics. This analogue device accounted for leap years and was advanced enough to account for the elliptical movement of the moon without knowing the moon moved in an ellipses.

[end_news_blurb]

Strange Devices

The Antikythera Mechanism exists and functions exactly as stated. Not a lot of interpretation or guesswork is needed. On the other hand, objects such as the Baghdad Battery suffer from forcing modern interpretations upon limited physical evidence and no supporting evidence. The devices, featuring a terracotta shell, an iron rod in and isolated from a copper tube and plugs that keep the iron and copper from touching. Jamie and Adam explored the devices for an episode of Mythbusters (one where a prank involving a cattle prod played out) and showed it was plausible to create enough electric current, using lemon juice in the device, to electroplate an item or deliver a mild shock.

Showing it is plausible, however, is not the same as showing that's what they were used for. Similar items were used to contain scrolls in the neighboring areas. There is a human tendency to search for contemporary meanings in non-contemporary settings, to search for human motivations in non-human interactions (anthropomorphism) and to see meaningful patterns in coincidental occurrences. In terms of random numbers, lottery draws for instance, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 is as likely as 2, 14, 22, 23, 31, 48 but people place more ... importance ... on the first sequence. And the following images, called the Dendera Lights, are interpreted as arc lights by some researchers, though other explanations are both more plausible and more rational. That does not mean they aren't arc lights, only that there is no reason to assume they are when other explanations make more sense.

Likewise, there is a seeming desire on the part of some researchers to conflate avian imagery with sentient-created aviation, such as with the Saqqara Bird and the pre-Columbian artifacts that resemble contemporary aircraft. Would it be amazing if pre-Columbians developed airplanes? Sure. Is it likely? No. For any number of reasons. There are many more examples that some researchers say indicate ancient flight technology or required flight technology to pull off, like the Nazca Lines.

None of this is meant to minimize ancient technology. Archimedes was one kick ass dude, having developed the Antikythera mechanism, probably, even if Mythbusters busted his death ray. It is difficult to do research in "fringe" sciences and gray areas at the best of times, and the Internet's whacko to reality ratio is not so hot. Most sights dedicated to more than one out of place artifact or strange occurrence are run by creationists, snake-oil salesmen or even sincere believers without an ounce of critical thinking skills, which skews the information to the nearly worthless. There are sites like snopes.com, forgetomori.com, Bad Archeology and Bad Astronomy, but you have to look to find sites that are both critical yet open.

This is no way suggests that science can currently explain everything. They key is to not confuse the "unexplained" with an invitation for just any explanation. Unidentified Flying Objects are unidentified, not alien driven chariots. I mean, they could be, but chances are pretty low given current information.