Darwin College Lecture Series: Decoding the Heavens: The Antikythera Mechanism by Jo Marchant

"There are quite a few mentions of devices that sound a bit like the Antikythera mechanism"

https://youtu.be/Iv-zWbxm2lY?t=2695

Jo Marchant is an award-winning science journalist and author of several popular science books including Decoding the Heavens: Solving the mystery of the world’s first computer and the New York Times bestseller Cure: A journey into the science of mind over body (both shortlisted for the Royal Society science books prize). She has a PhD in genetics, and has worked as a senior editor at New Scientist and at Nature.

According to Wikipedia similar devices were mentioned for example by Cicero, Archimedes supposedly wrote a now lost manuscript on the construction of devices like the Antikythera mechanism...: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism#Similar_...

very little from the past survives through to today.

I don't think there is any record of this device existing other than the device itself, and mention of it after its discovery in the early 1900s.

to some that will be proof that it is not truly an ancient device, and I think that is hogwash. most things just don't last that long, especially paper, which is where mention of the device would be found, if it ever is found.

I don’t doubt it’s ancient. I’m not skeptic from that POV. I do find it curious that such an object would be exist but not have some fanfare around it. I’m sure there’s an explanation that eludes me. Could have been developed in some secrecy for example because it have the people who used it some advantage?

Thinking of the most elaborate clockwork built today, those quarter million dollar wristwatches, there isn’t much written about them, maybe a youtube sizzle reel at most. Their customer base is small and they have little reason to document the inner-workings.

Could be this mechanism was just an exquisite commission for a wealthy dude to keep on his boat.

I think naikrovek explained it. We have but a few scraps of information from the ancient world. There might very well have been a fanfare; it might have been a huge deal—and we might still have no record of any mention of it.

or maybe it was just a fairly common thing, then?

the math used in the device is not complex, nor is its construction. it is only impressive to us because of what we assume about cultures of that time: that they are dumber than we are, less intelligent.

they were just as smart as us, but they were far fewer in number, and had many more limitations than we have when it comes to the library of technologies and skills they can call on to accomplish their goals.