Debate: Was the Antikythera Mechanism way ahead of its time or an outlier?

I've been reading about the Antikythera Mechanism found in a shipwreck off Greece around 1900. Some say it's a one-off genius piece of engineering from 100 BC, but others argue other similar devices existed we just haven't found. Do you think it was a random miracle or part of a lost tradition of Greek gear work? Curious what side people land on here.

3 comments

3 Comments

brian_hart5d agoMost Upvoted

Don't look at it as a miracle, look at it as proof that we are missing a lot of the historical record.

gray3145d ago

Man I heard some historian on a podcast saying the same thing - like how we barely have 10% of what was actually written down before the printing press came along. Makes you wonder what else got lost.

aliceharris5d ago

Not just books either. Think about how much everyday stuff just rotted away. Tax records, personal letters, grocery lists even. We got the fancy stuff like epic poems but the boring normal life stuff is basically gone forever.