A CORRODED lump of bronze salvaged from an ancient shipwreck has turned out to be nothing less than a computer used to plot the motion of heavenly bodies (see 鈥淭he Antikythera: lost secret of the ancients鈥�). We know of nothing approaching the complexity of this device 鈥� called the 鈥溾�� 鈥� for well over 1000 years after its construction in the second century BC.
Even more mind-blowing is what technologies the Ancient Greeks might have achieved if the Romans had not supplanted their culture. It鈥檚 a question once addressed by Arthur C. Clarke, who speculated that by now 鈥渨e would not merely be pottering around the moon. We would have reached the nearer stars.鈥� The story of this mechanical marvel reminds us never to take our own knowledge for granted.