Divers Discovered a 2000-Year-Old Tech Secret by Accident

0:00How much time passed between the inventions of the first computer and the appearance of the modern one? The first electronic computer in history is the ENIC, Electronic New Miracle, Integrator and Computer. It was invented in 1945 by American scientists. But there's an older machine. It's the Babbage Difference Engine. English engineer Charles Babbage built it in 1822. This means more than 200 years have passed since the first computer. And we would have thought so if, at the beginning of the 20th century, divers hadn't discovered a computer more than 2,000 years old. In 1900, a group of divers searched for sea sponges in the Mediterranean Sea between the island of Crete and mainland Greeks. But instead of sponges, they found sunken treasure ships. It was one of the most significant archaeological finds of that time. At the bottom were Greek marble sculptures and many other artifacts.

1:02Among them, divers found a strange piece of stone the size of a large book. They ignored it and put it with other finds in the museum. A few months later, archaeologists began to study the block and discovered that a strange object with bronze gears was hidden inside it. This shocked all scientists because, according to historical data, such things could not exist in ancient Greece. The technologies of that time were not so developed. Scientists started studying this object and realized they had no idea what it was. They called it the Antichythera mechanism and they had been trying to unravel its purpose for over a hundred years. The fragility of the object added complexity. It had been underwater for a millennium. Its internal instruments were damaged and when scientists touched them, they fell apart. Over many years of research, the object has split into 82 fragments, becoming a real puzzle for scientists worldwide.

2:05They found out that it was a machine designed for astronomical calculations. With the help of X-rays, computer tomography and virtual modeling, people could partially recreate the image of the mechanism. It was a complex structure consisting of 30 rotating gears that turned the dial. The whole mechanism was set in motion with a hand crank. All this was necessary for the ancient Greeks to track the positions of the moon and the sun and calculate the time of eclipses and the Olympic Games. It's as if Silicon Valley was an ancient Greece and the best minds united to create a revolutionary start-up. The Antichythera mechanism showed that people in the distant past had excellent knowledge of astronomy and technologies for studying the starry sky. Considering that time, it was not just a machine, but a supercomputer. People entered data into it and got the result after the complex calculations it performed.

3:09In 2016, scientists found an inscription on the device containing more than 3,000 symbols. It was something like a manual for use. The text had information about eclipsed colors, celestial body movement and astrological predictions. It was like a reference list of all the events that happened to the planets in the sky. The Greeks realized that all astronomical bodies in the starry sky moved along the same routes. That is, they had orbits close to the plane of motion of our planet around the sun. Ancient astronomers couldn't calculate the path of their movement, so they created the Antichythera mechanism. This was one of its main functions. The researchers found confirmation of this version in the words of the Roman lawyer, Cicero. In one of his quotes, there was a mention of a computing machine created by mathematician Archimedes. According to Cicero, the machine could depict the movement of five stars called wanderers.

4:11At that time, people called celestial bodies that way. Archimedes had lived before the Antichythera mechanism was invented, but perhaps he created the drawings that became the basis of the device. The mechanism worked, and when you turned the handle on it, it rotated the gears in the front and rear parts of the device. And then, the dial showed you the direction of movement of space objects. Besides, the machine had an astronomical calendar inside and tracked the time of sporting events such as the Olympic Games, and also helped to calculate the exact time of the eclipse. Apparently, the Antichythera mechanism was something like a powerful organizer used by scientists or wealthy citizens of Greece. But what is most unusual is that its creator probably installed a function that changed the observation properties depending on the observer's location. This means that ancient astronomers had to enter different coordinates in different areas for the correct result.

5:16NASA computers can do all these things today. These expensive multi-million dollar devices work with electricity, chips, processors, and thousands of other things. And the ancient Greeks achieved the same result two thousand years ago with the help of this small device. This changes the idea of the technologies of ancient Greece. People of that time had plumbing and used steam to control some equipment. They were developed, but no one expected them to go so far. Archaeologists were sure that people of ancient times used giant rough gears to operate windmills. And now, it turns out that they could create small and complex mechanisms that modern scientists couldn't figure out for a hundred years. Divers continued to study the seabed where the Antichythera mechanism was found. They have already found other items, such as nails from the ship and a bronze ring. Such underwater excavations are dangerous and complicated, so the research takes a long time.

6:22Experts think that the Antichythera mechanism was not a single copy. Perhaps the ancient Greeks made the same or similar machines. Maybe they're hidden somewhere, or were melted down to create something else. In those days, bronze was a costly metal, so when ancient astronomical computers broke down, people could melt them and sell the metal. Some researchers refer to the Antichythera mechanism as the ancient prototype of all modern devices. Fones, computers, and tablets have something in common with this machine. By the way, have you heard of the odometer device? This device tracks the distance traveled by car or other means of transport. Nowadays, odometers are digital, but this technology used to be mechanical. And the ancient Greeks were the first to invent it. According to some records, our comedies might have created it. The Roman later adopted this device for use during long journeys to aid in road construction.

7:25The ancient Greeks were the first to attempt to understand the rules of geometry. The Babylonians and Egyptians used geometry in different spheres of life. However, the Greeks decided to use logical reasoning to establish the rules and formulas that we still use today. Archimedes observed that when a solid object was immersed in water, it displaced a mass of water equal to the volume of the object. Have you heard of the Hippocratic Oath? This document is read aloud by all doctors before they start practicing medicine. For us, concepts such as confidentiality between a doctor and a patient seem commonplace, as well as a doctor's duty to always try to cure and save people's lives. But all of this was invented by ancient Greek Hippocrates. In addition to the famous Oath, he was one of the first to make a scientific leap in medicine. In ancient times, people viewed illnesses as punishment for bad deeds.

8:27But Hippocrates discovered that diseases were natural and that the human body could react differently to them. This may seem obvious now, but the ancient Greeks reached this conclusion in 460 BCE. Aristotle was the first to suggest that our planet is a sphere, and thanks to him, we enjoy movies, TV series, and performances. The ancient Greeks invented theater in the form we know it today. Aristotle wrote the first rules of drama in history, which guide directors and screenwriters on how to keep the viewers attention. Greek writers created plays in various genres, including tragedies, satires, and colonies. All of this contributed to the formation of Western culture, and that's why many directors enjoy staging ancient plays. And this is only a small part of what the Greeks invented. Therefore, it's quite logical that they were able to create the Antica Theorem mechanism.