118. The Antikythera Mechanism | THUNK

The Antikythera Mechanism: ancient mechanical astrological calendar, & reminder of the fragility of knowledge.

-Links for the Curious-

[MetsuryuVids]

As you say, I really wonder if there is something today that we overlook, but could have extremely important and useful uses if properly applied.
Maybe something like toothpaste can cure some exotic disease, or if we heat lemon juice to a certain temperature and pressure, it allows us to open wormholes or some shit like that.

[isablondethng]

I chuckled at your pun, though it took me a moment to realize you weren't just bragging that you were in Greece lol.
I also remember that feeling of slightly desperate frustration the day I learned that ancient societies had things from internal plumbing and heated side-walks, to that which you mentioned in this video. As a student I used to wonder if some of it was purposefully suppressed by the conquering culture who didn't feel like listening to the people they'd taken over. But it's indeed scary to think of all of the things we are missing just because of complacency.
At the same time, I am still rather excited for what we ARE doing with what we have now, even with what we've missed. I want the Star Trek future.
Great episode-keep it up!

[frederikdesaulniers]

I discovered your channel recently, and I've watched lots of your old videos. You make great content. That's what the internet is supposed to be about. Sharing ideas and pr0n.

[MrAzijn]

Keep going with these man, love your videos

[GreeceIsGVX]

Great video and I love how you expanded the discussion to a philosophy of technology and science matters.

[mattcrist]

The acropolis?! acro-police!?

HAHAHAH!

That was brilliant, yet again!

[Khether]

The YouTube channel *Click Spring* is doing an *UNBELIEVABLE* series recreating the antikythera. _Maybe_ at that point, it was too arduous of a job to create the wheels properly... Possibly it was a trade secret.Besides, *I haven't seen the original artifact*, but weren't the gears maybe *hidden* on the original actual finalized machines that were given away?

[montyscooter]

Guilds were an association of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular town. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of tradesmen. They were organized in a manner something between a professional association, trade union, a cartel, and a secret society. They kept their trades intellectual property secret even from their apprentices until they became entrusted with these. The higher order guilds were assigned royal seals and those secrets were kept within that kingdom.

[Ensivion]

I love Grand Strategy games, Civilization, Europa Universialis 4, Victoria 2 etc. There is one thing that they all get wrong, and it's this point exactly. The tech trees are very linear and there is almost a storyline for each game. The closest they get to this idea is that there are temporary effects (good and bad) that aren't that big. I wonder if it's possible to create a game that emphasizes the nonlinearity of human progress.

[somewony]

This reminds me of the De Verborgen Universiteit (Unseen University) trilogy, a dutch fantasy series whose entire plot revolves around a discovery someone made in the past, but locked away, because he considered it to be too dangerous to be used. The reason he didn't destroy it, is that that would "set the idea free, again to enter other minds".

[InternetArtifacts]

I think it's underappreciated how cyclical the nature of progress and human civilization is. This is aptly something the Greeks themselves realized and commented on. One significant difference between our age and theirs is the internet. There is no physical equivalent of the internet, no matter how large or magnificent a library you build. This is one reason it's so crucial to presence of the internet.

[xway]

I think that if the ancient greeks had some system of distibuting information over a large area quickly, discoveries like this would not have been forgotten. I think technological progress has been more or less linear since the printing press.

[Khether]

I think taking things for granted is a coping mechanism we have to use by default sometimes or maybe we would live too paranoid lives, but any civilization is more delicate than we'd like to admit, regardless, technology appears at the same time in several places when the conditions are right, not enough people knew the antikythera mechanism, and those who knew just didn't saw any other application at the time, but as soon as someone needed to pass force through wheels they would have realized that teeth would be useful. Might sound daunting, but it is just how things happen.

[DiscoStu]

I'm always wondering what would happen in the case of a major global event like a massive solar flair just removing so much digital knowledge and technologies.

How long would it take till we could see personal electronics in the same manner we do now?

[Eimist]

Great video! You deserve more subs. If you were a god at editing I could see that working out in your favour (nerdwriter ahem) because you already have such great content. Keep making great videos about interesting things!

[sayaks]

those who haven't should check out the youtube channel clickspring. he's making a replica of the antikythera mechanism.

[GoshemGarble]

Have you ever had a look at 'Philosophy of Technology'? It seems like the kind of thing you would be interested in. I haven't looked down there that far myself, but I did come across a book that proposed a different way to look at technology apart from the popular idea that technology builds upon on previous technology in a linear way. I'll go see if I can find it.

EDIT: Found it! "Questioning Technology" by Andrew Feenberg.

Also, apparently "What Things Do" by Peter-Paul Verbeek is supposed to be excellent.

[iliamanolov]

I didn't get the pun at the start. :/

[HumbertoRamosCosta]

Don't need to overthink, concret is a very basic and practical invention that was known by the romans and was almost abandoned in the medieval times... Even nowadays the biggest non unreinforced concrete dome is from roman times...

[ArthurSantos-dqbv]

(Question related to an old video, I know, I'm sorry but I didn't find any other means to do this)

Is logic a good topic to learn before starting philosophy? If so, how much of it is useful for the field? I've tried to start some courses (TeachYourselfLogic by Peter Smith and 100 Days of Logic by Carneades.org) that you liked in your previous video about Logic but I'm not sure at which point it becomes redundant for philosophy.