Lego Antikythera Mechanism
Why Worldbuilding Stack Exchange recommends it
Worldbuilding Stack Exchange answerers point people to it as proof that sophisticated geared computing devices can be built with simple mechanical parts and ancient-level technology.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2016 to 2021.
What it is
A short 2010 video from Nature Video showing a fully functional Lego replica of the Antikythera Mechanism, the ancient Greek geared device from around 100 BCE used to calculate astronomical positions. It briefly explains the mechanism's recovery from a 1901 shipwreck and its purpose as an astronomical clock.
Cited in 1 Wikipedia article, including Antikythera mechanism.
What people said
Recommends The Square-Cube Law · 2021-07 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “What would a hand-powered medieval computer need to be feasible?”
Define computer. An abacus [LINK] helps you compute, and this device has been around since 2,700 BC. With just a bit of mechanical engineering knowledge you can build something more sophisticated. The Antikythera device [LINK] was a machine based on cogs and levers that could the position of planets and the Moon and predict eclipses, as well as tracking other interesting astronomical stuff. The date in which it was built is still up to debate but all historians and scientists that researched it agree that it is from the BC era, between 205 to 87 BC approximately. Some nerd gods decoded how the cogs connected and made a functional, LEGO equivalent device a few years back; it's a treat to the
Cites Thucydides · 2016-11 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Post-apocalyptic... Rasberry Pi with Linux distribution?”
The Raspberry Pi is a pretty fun device, but even if you have stockpiled them in the millions in shelters all around the planet, it is not really going to help you "rebuild" the computer industry. The Pi itself requires the resources of the entire industrial ecosystem to build, and when you consider the supporting infrastructures including IO devices (keyboards, monitors), power sources (generators, power grids or even batteries) and network connections, either hardwired or not, including routers, network hubs and all the other hardware, you are not going to have the ability to support the existing hardware, much less create any new stuff. Given the post apocalyptic environment, you would pr
Cites Xen2050 · 2019-01 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “What could prevent us from making alien technology if we had the schematics?”
@Mazura That's interesting, but doesn't appear more complicated than a 14th century clock (as wikipedia says), and was reproduced by these guys [LINK] and in lego [this video]