Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Cardiff University Mike Edmunds talks about the Antikythera Mechanism. This was one of the keynote sessions at the Information Security Group (ISG) Open Day at Royal Holloway, University of London, in June 2016.
Abstract: The Antikythera Mechanism is an extraordinary device containing over thirty gear wheels, and dating from the 1st century B.C. It is an order of magnitude more complicated than any surviving mechanism from the following millennium. In this
illustrated talk, I will show the results of international research which has probed its structure and functions. The Mechanism's design is very sophisticated. Modern imaging technology and a study of its historical context in the ancient World have both played a crucial role in its decipherment. Its purpose was astronomical - including eclipse prediction, and a display of the motions of the planets. An outline of subsequent developments through medieval times, the Renaissance and the 19th Century will demonstrate its importance. The Mechanism illuminates cosmology and philosophy at the beginning of a mechanical view of the Universe, and its geared technology is a distant but recognisable precursor of mechanical calculation and the computer.
