WEBVTT - Technology of the Ancients 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.880 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.759 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Degla And 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.040 Julie I was looking around the Internet the other day 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.200 and I found this amazing theory which is completely out there, 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.960 completely non factual, but it's it's kind of the genesis 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.120 for this, uh, this podcast, and it captured your imagination 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.919 after is my imagination and serves to exemplify why this 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.800 is an amazing uh concept, the idea of the technology 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:42.599 of the ancients. Because the theory involves vedic nuclear war. 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:48.560 We're talking here right right, We're talking um atomic warfare 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:54.720 in uh the first millennium BC, which is a crazy idea. 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:56.440 And let's let me just get to get it out 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:58.840 before I go into the details. Here. We do not 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.160 buy into this at all. No, but I see a 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.840 movie here, like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Well it's interesting. 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.400 I actually was looking around and Grant Morrison, who's a 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:12.880 graphic novel comics sky brilliant, brilliant and weird Scottish dude. 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.880 He's apparently doing some sort of like sci fi adaptation 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:22.560 of the you know, the ancient Vedic epic, the Mahabarata, 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:25.680 and so so some people were thinking along these lines. 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.200 But but yeah, this this theory which you'll find if 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.600 you do a search for Mahabarata and uh, we're just 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:36.600 for nuclear warfare ancient India. You'll find just tons and 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.759 tons of websites, all of them saying that, hey, um, 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.080 they're like radio There are these you know, the remains 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.800 of these ancient cities and their radioactive and there's a 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.440 big crater and it's because there was nuclear warfare going 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.280 on way back in the days, because the ancient ancients 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.920 had all this advanced technology that it took us centuries 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.920 millennia to to catch up with again after their fall 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:05.279 all and they point to the Mahaparata as showing proof 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.440 of this. Yeah, and I should mention too that if 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:09.840 you go on such a quest on the internet, you 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.400 may find yourself in some very odd places down the 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:15.919 rabbit hole without like a rope. So yeah, we should 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.640 just warn people of that, and certainly without a scientific rope. 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.360 So so then, just to give a little background on 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.640 the Mahaparata, this is a is an epic of ancient 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:32.760 India written in Sanskrit, and it's full of imagery of 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:38.400 warring kings using utilizing like flying machines, terrifying energy weapons 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.080 and and magic and gods. It's um it's the story 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.800 of a great rivalry between two royal houses, the Kurus 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:50.880 and the Pandavas and uh and it it kind of 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.120 has its genesis in the first millennium BC in the 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.960 form of just popular stories about gods and kings and 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.720 so forth, UH and the But then it eventually gets 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.520 written down and their additional date for the war uh 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.280 that it's that's the central event of this epic is 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:09.160 a thirteen O two PC, but most historians as signed 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.000 it actually a later date. So you'll find a lot 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:17.280 of these web these crazy websites UM citing the Mahaparata. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.359 But they'll but they'll do this really annoying thing where 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.680 they'll have like they'll have like a particular um, you know, 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:24.760 section of texts here and here where they're where it 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:26.720 sounds you know, it's like, hey, it sounds like they're 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.160 talking about, you know, somebody using some crazy advanced technology 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:31.919 to blow up the city. And they're talking about people 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.720 fleeing burning cities and food becoming contaminated. That's great. And 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:37.160 then you go and then you know, I'm looking at that, 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.040 I'm thinking, hey, let me look up the original on that, 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:40.600 because I just want to be sure since this is 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:45.480 a crazy website. And then it's bund is green against 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.080 that black background. I'm like, well, let me let me 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.000 research this. But and then you look down to where 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.240 they site it, and they just put site the Mahaparata. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.840 The mob Haaparata is one is a one hundred thousand 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.840 verses long. See, you can't just say, oh, it's like 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.480 me saying God is love, dude, quote the Bible. It 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.080 just doesn't, you know, give me a little specific to 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:08.840 go on. I found somewhere they'd actually say, oh, this 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:13.680 is from the drown up Purva section of the Mahaparata. 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.360 But that section in and of itself has over two 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:21.440 hundred subsections of text. So, um, the best I could find, 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.240 like find just I'm on my own time when without 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.120 just killing days trying to track down what sources these 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.720 guys may or may not be quoting from. Um, if 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:33.880 you don't mind, I'm just gonna read like a real 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.359 quick bit no no, because I think again it captures 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.719 your imagination is this idea, is of this ancient warfare 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:44.240 and kings and flying saucerers. Even perhaps I don't know. 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.880 So here's here's a little bit from section thirty four 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.480 of book eight the Karna, and uh it goes a 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:52.960 little something like this, I'm gonna use the kind of 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.880 the door. I'm not gonna wrap, but I'm gonna I'm 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.400 gonna do a voice, you know, kind of like um. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:04.480 Then he called Nila Rohita, that terrible deity, robed in skins, 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:08.360 looking like ten thousand suns enshrouded by the fire of 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:13.440 superabundant energy, blazed up with splendor that discomforter of even 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.919 him that is difficult of being discomforted. That victor, that 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.320 slayer of all haters of Brahma, called also Horror, the 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.839 rescuer of the righteous and destroyer of the unrighteous, the 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:28.120 illustrious Fanu, accompanied by many beings of terrible might and 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.040 terrible forms that were endued with the speed of the mind, 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.880 and capable of agitating and crushing all foes, as if 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.400 with all fourteen faculties of the soul awake about him, 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:43.839 looked exceedingly resplendent. So it's yeah, so it's like lots 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.400 of that and that's that's awesome, and you can made 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.520 even better by your Charleton Heston like voice. By the way, 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:51.800 I could have handed up even more. But but some 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.080 of the some of the words are a bit uh 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.680 bit out there. Yeah, the names and all. But okay, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:05:59.720 but you know there's an example of yeah, there's all 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:01.600 sorts of crazy stuff going on in here. There are 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.600 these references to these like these different ostras, which are 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.120 some people think are weapons, and then there are these jantras, 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.520 which people think are machines. And if you go to 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:16.240 some of these websites, they'll even get real detailed with 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.440 it and say, this is referring to a flying machine, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.520 this is talking about nuclear weapons, this is talking about 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.919 a TV screen or a heat ray or a holographic device, 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:28.600 and uh, these are interpretations of this text, right yeah. 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.640 And then and then to the ruins there there we 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.719 do have ruins of the ancient cities of Harappa and 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:40.080 Mahineodaro and these were once give great metropolises of the 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.320 Indus Valley civil civilization, some of the earliest urban centers 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.839 in the world. And you know now they're gone. But 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.160 you see these references talking about radio radiation in these sites, 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.560 and there's just no I could not find a single source. Actually, 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.200 I applaud you for for looking into it so intently, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.479 because I have to admit that when I was looking 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:02.680 into it and I started to see some talk of 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.600 anti matter, I started back away because I knew that, 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:08.000 like right around the corner, aliens were hanging out there. 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.640 So I was like, it is is a very intriguing thing. 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.040 And I think what's so intriguing about it is because 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.840 people were thinking about warfare and technology UM in a 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:23.960 very complex way much before they could even actually put 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.679 it into use. Right, We've seen this over and over again. 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.920 We see we've seen this with da Vinci and drawings 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.520 with all sorts of ideas of how to create stuff 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.600 that he just was way too ahead of his time 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.880 to put into motion. Yeah, it drives some the real 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:42.760 examples we're going to look at here, the ones that 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.280 are actually that we can actually say, yes, this happened 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.680 or this probably happened, and are not related to atomic 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:53.640 wars between demigods and in a primal age um. These 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.280 are these are all examples of that did really show 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.680 how how much the human mind can accomplish even if 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.600 it does and have the same tools that minds have today. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:04.280 Like I kind of like to think of it as 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.600 imagine you give one guy a sheet of paper and 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.680 one guy a poster board, and then both of them 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:12.400 are artists, and you say, fill it up with some 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.400 art for me, you know, give me some art and uh, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:17.880 and if they're they both have the same amount of skill, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.520 one guy is gonna be able to fill up one uh, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.520 you know, sheet of papers worth of art they have. 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.440 The guy's gonna fill up one poster boards worth of art. 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.239 And today we can fill up more of a poster 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.000 board size because we have the science we were able 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:35.320 to stand on the backs of giants. We uh, we 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.760 we have a much much more advanced technology to aid 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.560 the human mind and developing these things. But still given 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.839 the limited, um, you know, restraints of the time. Uh. 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.120 Some of these guys you know in the you know, 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.720 for common era back but you know, in BC time, 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.960 they were accomplishing amazing things with their technology and and 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:58.760 in their understanding of the visible universe. Yeah, which became 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.280 a pretty nuanced understanding for for that time. In those capabilities. 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:04.880 As you mentioned, Um, I did want to talk about 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.080 really quickly. A couple of things that I came across 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:11.360 which are kind of low fi um tech. Uh, I 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.280 guess you could say inventions of warfare. And this is 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.520 from the Christian Science Monitor. It's called articles called early 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:21.439 weapons of mass destruction and they cite a king and 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.200 Asia minor of the second century b C. Who was 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.280 defeated when Hannibal quote catapulted live snakes on two ships, 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.520 which I thought. It's creative, right, yeah, it's the sort 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:35.559 of warfare. It's the kind of thing you would more 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:39.600 expect from ancient times as opposed to dazzling weapons of light. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:43.520 Yeah yeah, yeah, you see, like you know, flamethrowers, snakes. 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:45.280 I mean, the snakes thing I do have to say 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:47.079 kind of reminds me of Pee Wee Herman a little bit, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.440 like if he catapulted snakes. No, I mean he he uh, 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.000 he released some snakes of going from a pet store, 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.160 but if he were to go into warfare, I'm pretty 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:57.120 sure that's how he would do it. Um. And then 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.800 there's sort of an example of early bio warfare and 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:04.320 the the Hittite sent plague victims into the land of 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.800 their enemies, and this is from the same article. They 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.680 basically say in this article quote, the principle of summoning 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.640 plague for self defense maybe related to the reality that 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:20.880 invaders are immunologically naive and therefore more vulnerable to epidemic 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.199 diseases in foreign lands than the local population. So there 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:30.720 was some sort of understanding about disease and other cultures 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.160 perhaps not having or being vulnerable to it. Yeah, you know, 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:38.080 this is this is a bit of an extrapolation of 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:42.600 the idea. But again there's this idea that that humans 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.200 are sitting around saying, how is how can I best 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.280 my enemy? I've got snakes at my disposition, I've got 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.880 a couple of plague victims. You know, what else can 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.840 we do here? Yeah, it's a lot more nuanced than saying, 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.840 all right, guys, we really want to take uh these 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.560 other this other tribes the stuff. So let's go pokem 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.200 with sharp sticks. Everybody get a sharp stick. Let's go, 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.320 let's do it. Yeah. Yeah, that sharp stick I di 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:09.400 didn't work out so well last time? What else can 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.400 we do? Um? So this has kind of brought us 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.559 to actually what we were talking about before, just these 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.840 much more complex mechanisms that people began to look into 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.160 to better understand the world and can navigate it. And 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:28.320 in particular, there's something called the Islamic astrolabe. Very cool thing. Yes, 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.400 the astrolabe is pretty amazing. And I'm gonna I'm gonna 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.920 put together, as usual, a blog post to accompany this, 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:35.600 and I'll be sure to have an image of an 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:40.440 astrolabe because it's you've probably seen it before and uh, 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.960 and you know what I'm talking about here, But but 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:45.520 you have to look at them because they're just be 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.880 beautiful art um. As was common in those days. When 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.200 you're creating an artifact um that's going to aid you 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:53.760 in anything, you're also going to g's you know, it's 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.080 like illuminated manuscripts. It's descightful, but let's make it beautiful 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.280 as well. And it's the same. I was trying to 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.920 think about how to best describe it, and it's obviously 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.200 it's this disk that has these different inlays on it, 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.120 and with inlay a sort of like carvings too, and 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.320 all sorts of um information and symbols on it and 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.440 so on and so forth. But it reminds me of 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.160 something that like that you would create now as a 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.160 steampunk piece. Of jewelry. Yeah, it does have that kind 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.800 of look to it. It's basically it's a small circular 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.800 device usually made of wood or brass, sometimes paper, um 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:34.439 varying degrees of like we said, artistic embellishment. And essentially 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.240 it's a model of the stars in the sky and 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.520 you can move them to show where the stars would 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:40.200 be at any time in the year. And then you 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.600 flip it over and you and there's like a gear 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.559 and you can in this site concerns the sun and 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:51.000 the moon, and it's uh, the basic idea. The concepts 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:56.320 originate around three b C. And the the Arabs of 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.000 the ninth century were the ones to perfect it. And 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.000 and this is what's crazy. After they perfected it in 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.960 the ninth century, it was the basic astronomer's tool for 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.240 the next seven hundred years. That's how much staying power 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.080 this device goes. Nowadays, my my iPad or my my 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.160 pod or iPhone or any kind of technological device I have, 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:16.160 it has like what a shelf life of of maybe 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.120 a year before a new version comes along. And granted 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:21.440 they were you know, and a lot of this time 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:23.520 they were adding little features apps, if you will, to 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:28.040 the astro labor astrolabe and uh, but but still the 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.840 basic concept was just held strong, right, And we should 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.359 probably mention too that it's the design and the execution 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.480 of the design is credited with Appollonius and two fifty BC, 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.200 So that'll just kind of ground everybody. And and what 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.840 we're talking about here in this timeline, and again you 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.120 talked about the actual idea of it being around around 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:51.600 three and that, yeah, and that's that's because people had 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.360 to hold on a concept called stereographic projection, which is 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.280 used in this device. Um. The ironic thing to me 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.240 about this is that, yes, this app that if you 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.000 know how to use it, you've got like thousand different 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.720 choices on different data that you can access. But if 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.520 you were to put it and you are its hands today, 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:11.320 it would be like putting up in nana our hands 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:12.800 and being like, hey, you used just to find out 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:14.719 what time it is? Yeah, we'd have we'd just be like, oh, 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.200 this is pretty Yeah, it would it would be as 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.680 lost in our hands as my iPhone would be in 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.520 the hands of somebody from well, probably we would be 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:26.480 more lost because I think that I would just say 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:28.720 it's so intuitive. I think they'd start doing you know, 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.680 oh the screen moves, okay, and then that individual would 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.440 rule the world inside a week with that. With that, well, 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.080 now we probably wouldn't be able to get three g 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.160 if you travel back. And it's true, but but no, 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.520 an astrolabe can let you tell the day and time, 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.400 calculate distances determined prayer times. Uh. You know this is 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.000 especially drawing to its uh, its origins in in the 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:51.320 Middle East, and it's perfection in the Middle East is 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.760 that people U Muslims were able to use this to 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.760 make sure they knew what times they needed to pray. Likewise, 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.040 it could be used to determine the direction of Mecca, 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.120 so you know which direction to pray, and can determine 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:08.720 building heights, can be used in surveying longitude, latitude, altitude, horoscopes, 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.840 um position of the planets, various occult usages that are 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.800 tied in with with the position of the heavens. Well, 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.800 and there's the astrological events that correspond to the Islamic 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.840 faith too, right, So um, that was important for them 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:24.600 to know as well. Yeah, so I mean it was. 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:26.920 I mean for a long time, if you were a 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.360 learned individual, uh, you probably had an astrolabe Yeah. And 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.240 this is the cool thing too about this is that 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.880 Islamic astronomists they really did work on this for centuries 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.440 and centuries, as you say, perfecting it. Uh. And this 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:42.360 is not something that we've seen in the past with 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.720 other mechanisms or technology that you know, a group of 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:50.000 people would um or a faith even would work on 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:52.880 something so diligently to try to make it the best 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.479 that it could be. Usually what happens is that technology 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.880 is created and then someone somewhere over on the other 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.720 side of the world, you know, reinvents the wheel um 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.440 or you know, the technology itself may fall away or 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.760 become distorted, but yes, you know, these scholars kept it 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.920 um alive for so many years that by the time 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.080 that it became used in the Age of Discovery, it 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.760 was just sort of poised to actually usher in the 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.920 Age of discovery, right because all of a sudden, we 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:25.240 have this, this incredible instrument that you could navigate with, 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.680 and that just kind of opened up the whole world, right. Yeah, 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.840 I mean I was looking through um. One of James 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:35.280 Brooke's books, i think was Connections, talking about the way 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:40.160 different inventions sort of timeline to each other and the 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:41.880 astrolabe is one of these like you look it up 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:43.680 in the index and it shows up just dozens of 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:47.160 times because it was it's an important step in our technological, 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.840 uh and its scientific evolution. Yeah, I mean, I think 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:51.600 it's fair to say that if it wasn't the place 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.680 that it was at the time, then the just discovery 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.880 would not have happened. We'd be living in a very 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.640 different world most likely. Well, hey, we're gonna take a 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.400 quick right here, and when we come back, we're going 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:09.960 to talk about a little something called the Antiquathera mechanism. 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.919 This presentation is brought to you by Intel Sponsors of 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:20.879 tomorrow and we're back the So the Antiqathera mechanism. I 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.040 did want to mention something really quickly, is this is 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.720 just one of those like cool fact things about the astrolabe. 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.280 The first technical manual on it. Oh yes, yes, it 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.720 was actually written by Jeffrey Chaucer for his eleven year 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:38.480 old son so he could understand how it worked. Great writer, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.880 one of the greatest writers of all time, as technical 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.960 manual for a device, possibly the first code monkey. Maybe, 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:45.320 I don't know, it's kind of like her kind of 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.879 a loose use of the term. But that's like kind 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.760 of like how stuff works own Tracy V. Wilson, she 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.280 used to do technical technical manuals. I think, yes, that's 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:56.320 what I've heard anyway. And I'm pretty sure that she 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.840 has an astro lebe Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I've 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:00.440 seen her. I've seen her on Marta pull it out 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.680 and yeah, yeah, train is running late again. That was 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:05.840 before she got the she upgraded to an iPhone, but 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:12.919 now she's in the fold. So um, let's look at 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.240 this anti Cathera mechanism. Now, this you may recognize from 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:18.320 if you've seen images of it. It kind of looks 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:24.080 like a rusted gear, kind of green looking gear embedded 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.640 in a big lump of stone. Yeah, and I love 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:32.440 the idea that these divers found it, right yeah. Yeah, 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:35.560 they're um sponge divers and they spotted it, and you 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.600 think that there it was probably covered in barnacles. Yeah, 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.679 and they're probably like, what is this hunk of junks 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:42.840 sitting here at the bottom of the sea. Like I 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:44.920 wouldn't have thought to pick it up and bring it 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:46.680 with me. If I saw on somebody's garden, I might 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:48.359 be like, Oh, that's that's the neat use of an 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.720 old gear looking rock, but I wouldn't have thought it 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:52.720 was amazing. Yeah, all that I was thinking about in 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.159 the context of that period of time where there was 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.480 so much archaeological discovery that I'm sure that divers all 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.119 the time we're probably looking for ship breckx um. And 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:03.040 this was in fact part of a shipwreck that was 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:07.520 off the island of Anti Cathera so so named for 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.200 that island. Yeah, and it it turns out, as best 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.160 we can, we can understand it. It was very much 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.480 like the astrolabe, and it was an astronomical device representing 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:20.800 the movements of the heavens, which to the ancient Greeks 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.159 was five planets, because that's all they knew of. Again, 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:28.040 think to that, you know, the whole paper versus poster 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.600 board painting. You know, they were working within the limits 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:35.040 of their their understanding. But but it had a really alarmingly, 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.439 you know, complete understanding of it. Um studies of the 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.399 wreck and the cargo it carries it up to the 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:43.800 ships that sailing around sixty five b C. And it 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.439 was heading west from Asia Minor. It was a Roman 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.440 ship and it was carrying Greek loot back to Rome. 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:51.920 I love it the rogue part of it, right, Yeah, 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:54.640 almost like it was cursed, like you know, they took 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.919 it and then the vessel. But um, there's no evidence 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.920 for them. Just fun to think about. Yeah, though it 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.399 did uh you know, it did have Greek inscriptions on it, 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.320 which is another key, you know, way that we're able 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.240 to to try and understand what it was. And these 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.639 inscriptions the device dated back you know, U two around 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.000 one hundred BC, and it suggests that it was already 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.640 a few decades old when the ship sank. So now 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.199 it seems more likely that it was actually made in 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.000 Syracuse and then then it was taken east to show 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.760 off to the scholars at Rhodes. So what we're now 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.720 where Syracuse gets interesting is that Syracuse was the hometown 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:42.679 of Archimedes, the the ancient mad genius mathematician, and now 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.880 he lived He lived a century before this mechanism was made, 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:47.880 so there's no way he could have made it. Uh, 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.119 he couldn't have created it, but he pioneered the use 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:53.680 of gear wheels to achieve different force ratios with weights 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.560 things like that. So um, based you know, based on 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.080 what we know, Um, it's it seems he a lot 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.280 of his ideas may have wound up in this device. Yeah. Yeah, 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.480 it's very likely that that he may be even held 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:12.479 onto one himself, m giving given his sort of penchant 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.480 for stuff and gears and um, I guess you could 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.920 say that he was a gear head of yesteryear. Yeah. 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:22.920 This is from the Anti Cathera mechanism research project. Is 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.040 a question that says, does does the mechanism favor a 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:30.199 heliocentric or a geocentric universe? So is the Sun at 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.119 the center of the university depicts or is the Earth 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.399 at the center of the university depicts? Yeah, which is 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:37.480 a really interesting question. You and I have talked about 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:41.240 this both wrong but right. But still they represent a 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.879 drastic change in our thinking about the cosmos. Yeah, and 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:46.439 this gives us a little bit of a clue to 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:50.120