A CORRODED lump of bronze salvaged from an ancient shipwreck has turned out to be nothing less than a computer used to plot the motion of heavenly bodies (see “The Antikythera: lost secret of the ancients”). We know of nothing approaching the complexity of this device – called the “” – for well over 1000 years after its construction in the second century BC.
Even more mind-blowing is what technologies the Ancient Greeks might have achieved if the Romans had not supplanted their culture. It’s a question once addressed by Arthur C. Clarke, who speculated that by now “we would…
