Computer Provides More Questions Th

Computer Provides More Questions Than Answers

The island of Antikythera lies 18 miles north of Crete, where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean. Currents there can make shipping treacherous -- and one ship bound for ancient Rome never made it.

The ship that sank there was a giant cargo vessel measuring nearly 500 feet long. It came to rest about 200 feet below the surface, where it stayed for more than 2,000 years until divers looking for sponges discovered the wreck a little more than a century ago.

Inside the hull were a number of bronze and marble statues. From the look of things, the ship seemed to be carrying luxury items, probably made in various Greek islands and bound for wealthy patrons in the growing Roman Empire. The statues were retrieved, along with a lot of other unimportant stuff, and stored.

Nine months later, an enterprising archaeologist cleared off a layer of organic material from one of the pieces of junk and found that it looked like a gearwheel. It had inscriptions in Greek characters and seemed to have something to do with astronomy.

That piece of "junk" went on to become the most celebrated find from the shipwreck; it is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Research has shown that the wheel was part of a device so sophisticated that its complexity would not be matched for a thousand years -- it was also the world's first known analog computer.

The device is so famous that an international conference organized in Athens a couple of weeks ago had only one subject: the Antikythera Mechanism.

Every discovery about the device has raised new questions. Who built the device, and for what purpose? Why did the technology behind it disappear for the next thousand years? What does the device tell us about ancient Greek culture? And does the marvelous construction, and the precise knowledge of the movement of the sun and moon and Earth that it implies, tell us how the ancients grappled with ideas about determinism and human destiny?

"We have gear trains from the 9th century in Baghdad used for simpler displays of the solar and lunar motions relative to one another -- they use eight gears," said François Charette, a historian of science in Germany who wrote an editorial accompanying a new study of the mechanism two weeks ago in the journal Nature. "In this case, we have more than 30 gears. To see it on a computer animation makes it mind-boggling. There is no doubt it was a technological masterpiece."

The device was probably built between 100 and 140 BC, and the understanding of astronomy it displays seems to have been based on knowledge developed by the Babylonians around 300-700 BC, said Mike Edmunds, a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University in Britain. He led a research team that reconstructed what the gear mechanism would have looked like by using advanced three-dimensional-imaging technology. The group also decoded a number of the inscriptions.

The mechanism explores the relationship between lunar months -- the time it takes for the moon to cycle through its phases, say, full moon to full moon -- and calendar years. The gears had to be cut precisely to reflect this complex relationship; 19 calendar years equal 235 lunar months.

By turning the gear mechanism, which included what Edmunds called a beautiful system of epicyclic gears that factored in the elliptical orbit of the moon, a person could check what the sky would have looked like on a date in the past, or how it would appear in the future.

The mechanism was encased in a box with doors in front and back covered with inscriptions -- a sort of instruction manual. Inside the front door were pointers indicating the date and the position of the sun, moon and zodiac, while opening the back door revealed the relationship between calendar years and lunar months, and a mechanism to predict eclipses.

"If they needed to know when eclipses would occur, and this related to the rising and setting of stars and related them to dates and religious experiences, the mechanism would directly help," said Yanis Bitsakis, a physicist at the University of Athens who co-wrote the Nature paper. "It is a mechanical computer. You turn the handle and you have a date on the front."

Building it would have been expensive and required the interaction of astronomers, engineers, intellectuals and craftspeople.

Charette said the device overturned conventional ideas that the ancient Greeks were primarily ivory tower thinkers who did not deign to muddy their hands with technical stuff. It is a reminder, he said, that while the study of history often focuses on written texts, they can tell us only a fraction of what went on at a particular time.

(Imagine a future historian encountering philosophy texts written in our time -- and an aircraft engine. The books would tell that researcher what a few scholars were thinking today, but the engine would give them a far better window into how technology influenced our everyday lives.) Charette said it was unlikely that the device was used by practitioners of astrology, then still in its infancy. More likely, he said, it was bound for a mantelpiece in some rich Roman's home. Given that astronomers of the time already knew how to calculate the positions of the sun and the moon and to predict eclipses without the device, it would have been the equivalent of a device built for a planetarium today -- something to spur popular interest, or at least claim bragging rights.

Why was the technology that went into the device lost?

"The time this was built, the jackboot of Rome was coming through," Edmunds said. "The Romans were good at town planning and sanitation but were not known for their interest in science."

The fact that the device was so complex, and that it was being shipped with a quantity of other luxury items, tells Edmunds that it is very unlikely to have been the only one ever made.

Its sophistication "is such that it can't have been the only one," Edmunds said. "There must have been a tradition of making them. We're always hopeful a better one will surface."

Indeed, he said, he hopes that his study and the renewed interest in the Antikythera Mechanism will prompt second looks by both amateurs and professionals around the world.

"The archaeological world may look in their cupboards and maybe say, 'That isn't a bit of rusty old metal in the cupboard.'

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

Máy tính cung cấp câu hỏi hơn câu trả lờiĐảo cấu Antikythera có cự ly 18 dặm Anh về phía bắc của đảo Crete, nơi biển Aegean đáp ứng địa Trung Hải. Dòng có có thể làm cho vận chuyển nguy hiểm - và một tàu bị ràng buộc cho La Mã cổ đại, không bao giờ thực hiện nó.Con tàu chìm đã có một tàu chở hàng khổng lồ đo gần 500 feet dài. Nó đến để phần còn lại khoảng 200 feet dưới bề mặt, nơi nó ở lại cho hơn 2.000 năm cho đến khi thợ lặn tìm kiếm bọt biển phát hiện ra xác tàu đắm một chút nhiều hơn một thế kỷ trước.Bên trong thân tàu đã là một số bức tượng bằng đồng và bằng đá cẩm thạch. Từ nhìn của sự vật, con tàu dường như thực hiện mặt hàng xa xỉ, có thể được thực hiện ở nhiều vùng Greek islands và bị ràng buộc cho các khách hàng giàu có trong Đế quốc La Mã ngày càng tăng. Các bức tượng được lấy ra, cùng với rất nhiều công cụ khác không quan trọng, và lưu trữ.Chín tháng sau đó, một nhà khảo cổ người enterprising xóa ra một lớp vật liệu hữu cơ từ một trong những phần của rác và thấy rằng nó trông giống như một gearwheel. Nó đã có chữ khắc trong ký tự Hy Lạp và dường như có cái gì để làm với thiên văn học.Phần đó của "rác" đã trở thành nổi tiếng nhất tìm từ đắm tàu; nó được trưng bày tại bảo tàng khảo cổ Quốc gia Athens. Nghiên cứu đã chỉ ra rằng các bánh xe là một phần của một thiết bị như vậy tinh vi phức tạp của nó sẽ không được kết hợp trong một ngàn năm - đây cũng là máy tính tương tự được biết đến đầu tiên của thế giới.Thiết như vậy nổi tiếng rằng một hội nghị quốc tế tổ chức tại Athena một vài tuần trước đây đã chỉ có một chủ đề: cơ cấu Antikythera.Mỗi khám phá về thiết bị đã đưa ra câu hỏi mới. Những người chế tạo thiết bị, và cho mục đích gì? Tại sao công nghệ đằng sau nó biến mất cho các năm tiếp theo? Những gì hiện điện thoại cho chúng tôi về văn hoá Hy Lạp cổ đại? Và làm việc xây dựng tuyệt vời, và các kiến thức chính xác về sự chuyển động của mặt trời và mặt trăng và trái đất nó ngụ ý, cho chúng tôi biết làm thế nào người cổ đại grappled với những ý tưởng về determinism và số phận con người?"Chúng tôi có bánh xe lửa từ thế kỷ thứ 9 ở Baghdad được sử dụng cho các hiển thị đơn giản của các chuyển động năng lượng mặt trời và âm lịch tương đối với nhau--họ sử dụng tám bánh răng," cho biết François Charette, một sử gia khoa học ở Đức, người đã viết một bài xã luận đi kèm với một nghiên cứu mới của cơ chế hai tuần trước đây trên tạp chí Nature. "Trong trường hợp này, chúng tôi có hơn 30 bánh răng. Nhìn thấy nó trên một hoạt hình máy tính làm cho nó mind-boggling. Không có không có nghi ngờ nó là một kiệt tác công nghệ."Thiết bị có lẽ được xây giữa 100 và năm 140 TCN, và sự hiểu biết của thiên văn học nó sẽ hiển thị dường như đã được dựa trên kiến thức phát triển bởi Babylon xung quanh thành phố 300-700 TCN, ông Mike Edmunds, một giáo sư vật lý thiên văn tại Cardiff University ở Anh. Ông đã lãnh đạo một nhóm nghiên cứu xây dựng lại những gì cơ chế bánh đã có thể nhìn như thế bằng cách sử dụng công nghệ tiên tiến của ba-dimensional-hình ảnh. Nhóm cũng giải mã một số các chữ khắc.The mechanism explores the relationship between lunar months -- the time it takes for the moon to cycle through its phases, say, full moon to full moon -- and calendar years. The gears had to be cut precisely to reflect this complex relationship; 19 calendar years equal 235 lunar months.By turning the gear mechanism, which included what Edmunds called a beautiful system of epicyclic gears that factored in the elliptical orbit of the moon, a person could check what the sky would have looked like on a date in the past, or how it would appear in the future.The mechanism was encased in a box with doors in front and back covered with inscriptions -- a sort of instruction manual. Inside the front door were pointers indicating the date and the position of the sun, moon and zodiac, while opening the back door revealed the relationship between calendar years and lunar months, and a mechanism to predict eclipses."If they needed to know when eclipses would occur, and this related to the rising and setting of stars and related them to dates and religious experiences, the mechanism would directly help," said Yanis Bitsakis, a physicist at the University of Athens who co-wrote the Nature paper. "It is a mechanical computer. You turn the handle and you have a date on the front."Building it would have been expensive and required the interaction of astronomers, engineers, intellectuals and craftspeople.
Charette said the device overturned conventional ideas that the ancient Greeks were primarily ivory tower thinkers who did not deign to muddy their hands with technical stuff. It is a reminder, he said, that while the study of history often focuses on written texts, they can tell us only a fraction of what went on at a particular time.

(Imagine a future historian encountering philosophy texts written in our time -- and an aircraft engine. The books would tell that researcher what a few scholars were thinking today, but the engine would give them a far better window into how technology influenced our everyday lives.) Charette said it was unlikely that the device was used by practitioners of astrology, then still in its infancy. More likely, he said, it was bound for a mantelpiece in some rich Roman's home. Given that astronomers of the time already knew how to calculate the positions of the sun and the moon and to predict eclipses without the device, it would have been the equivalent of a device built for a planetarium today -- something to spur popular interest, or at least claim bragging rights.

Why was the technology that went into the device lost?

"The time this was built, the jackboot of Rome was coming through," Edmunds said. "The Romans were good at town planning and sanitation but were not known for their interest in science."

The fact that the device was so complex, and that it was being shipped with a quantity of other luxury items, tells Edmunds that it is very unlikely to have been the only one ever made.

Its sophistication "is such that it can't have been the only one," Edmunds said. "There must have been a tradition of making them. We're always hopeful a better one will surface."

Indeed, he said, he hopes that his study and the renewed interest in the Antikythera Mechanism will prompt second looks by both amateurs and professionals around the world.

"The archaeological world may look in their cupboards and maybe say, 'That isn't a bit of rusty old metal in the cupboard.'