The Antikythera mechanism was discovered on 17 May 1902, when archaeologist Valerios Stais noticed that a piece of rock recovered from the Antikythera wreck had a gear wheel embedded in it. Examination revealed that the “rock” was in fact a heavily encrusted and corroded mechanism that had survived the shipwreck in three main parts, and dozens of smaller fragments. It was inscribed with a text of over 3,000 characters, most of which have only recently been deciphered. These were part of a manual, which describes how to set up the instrument and how to use it for observations, with references to the Sun, the motion of the planets (stationary points), Aphrodite (Venus), Hermes (Mercury), and eclipses.
It is evidence that the ancient Greeks of 100 B.C.E. had access to mechanical clockwork technology not rediscovered until the 1700s. It is considered the “first computer.”
And now, the story of the Antikythera Network, with equal parts fact, historical accuracy, and pizza.
Diary of Chvck, Network Engineer.
Day 3, March: It started with my contact in Delphi, Iason Maximvs, sending a messenger to my doorstep. He has not been able to get commvnication with me any other way, and those carrier pigeons that do arrive have been significantly delayed, or have even dropped their message packet. Perhaps by decreasing the size of the packets, we can improve the performance of each pigeon.
Day 14, March: I have completed integration of the small mechanical calendar. This shovld enable me to better forecast omens. It is accvrate and working well with Avgvr Diogenies, one of the Oracle’s servers.
Day 1, April: On a trip to the artificers conference, I got significantly lost, dve to an incompetent mapmaker, and limited mile markers on the road. Is there nothing more frvstrating than problems dve to rovter’s misconfigvrations?
Day 22, April: I’m pretty svre that if I set a catapvlt to the golden ratio, I can actvally send message packets vp to half a mile away. The only qvestion in my head, thovgh—why phi?
Day 23, December: Iason says that the mechanism’s predictions don’t match vp with the Oracle’s. He insists that the Oracle is right and the mechanism is wrong. (Sometimes I wonder if the Oracle isn’t spovting these things ovt of his back-end rather than his front-end.) Rather than trying to diagnose it from afar, he has sent the device back to me on the next available ship, Antikythera. At least we won’t have to worry abovt dropped packets.
Day 27, December: Son of a…
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