It was sort of an i-phone, actually. We use ours to check Facebook.; they used theirs to check the position of the planets.
It was only about the size of a shoebox. It was found in a shipwreck. Because of the corrosion and the delicacy of it, reconstructing it has been the task of decades. They left us a puzzle; we are figuring it out. Here is an article about some of the latest discoveries about it. Here you can see a video about it.
There are still some questions. Like, did it do some things that we haven’t found yet (due to the damage to it)? How did they make it (since we don’t think they had lathes)? Given that they could make things like this, how come we haven’t found a lot more? In fact, are there more to be found in this very shipwreck? Why didn’t they make clocks? (Hint: maybe because you don’t really need clocks until you have electric lights and trains.) So many exciting questions! No sarcasm here. I really am excited.
This reminds me of what my Old Testament Backgrounds teacher once said about Babel: “If God hadn’t confused the languages, perhaps the industrial revolution could have happened right then.”
Out of Babel 
Very cool Indiana Jones or Uncharted stuff going on here. Purely mechanical machine for stars in the galaxy? Yes, please! In the book I am reading right now, this reminded me of their oversized mechanical clocks that they have in their “maths”, which is like city I suppose. The book is called “Anathem”.
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Right? It sounds like sci-fi, but it’s real!
I’ll have to look up “Anathem.” Thanks for the tip.
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I think maybe you’d like it? Some of the narration style reminded me of your work.
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Not need clocks?!? What blasphemy is this? Then how would you know whether you’re late to church or not? 😉
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Amazing device, whatever it’s for.
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Those Greek engineers are exactly the guys you would be hanging out with, given the chance, right?
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Yep.
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