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SpaceInMyBrain t1_iswtrv6 wrote

This is incredibly cool, on so many levels. (Pun unintended, it only became apparent when I typed out the sentence.) I may have heard of Hipparchus but didn't know all of the other info about his work. Talk about being ahead of your time!

People are taught the importance of Gutenberg's printing press but most fail to realize the watershed it represents between valuable knowledge being easily lost and the same knowledge very likely being preserved. Multiple copies are incredibly important. The Antikythera mechanism is looked at with wonder but I also feel sadness - the immense amount of research and theoretical work that went into creating it could have propagated throughout the ancient world. Who knows what would have resulted?

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sithelephant t1_isxb5o7 wrote

Guilds are another problem.

The reason for not preserving many of the techniques was not lack of printing, but intentional control of knowledge to the degree it was often lost going from master->apprentice->Oh, he got hit by a cart.

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SpaceInMyBrain t1_isxctmy wrote

Right. And even before that - I've read that in ancient Greece the technology in a temple that was used to do things like open a door or raise a statue from the floor by hidden means was guarded by the priest class. It could have been developed and been useful but instead was lost until archeologists found it and put the findings together with ancient accounts of the moving doors, etc.

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alvinofdiaspar t1_isy3hz4 wrote

There are a number of these mechanical devices (even a form of steam engine) - look up Hero of Alexandria. They didn’t make the leap to using these machines in a mass-produced, industrial manner though; mainly just as curiosities. History would have turned out so differently had they been able to make the leap.

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