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I've just been reading an article about nanorobotics. The extreme, but nonetheless likely, concept of nanotechnology is the "bottom up" creation of virtually any material or object by assembling it one atom at a time. It has far reaching implications for the future and will effect just about everything in our day to day lives. Imagine, a quick visit to the NanoStore on your phone, download the Coffee-Bot app and hey presto; the perfect hot drink every time. A uniquely crafted beverage courtesy of the billions of atom stacking magicians. Amazing.
Of course, for now, this is the stuff of fiction but I am not alone when I say that I find advances in technology both exciting and a be-all and end-all playground for human scientific achievement.
At least, that's what I thought until two days ago.
After casually perusing a magazine, I learned about a piece of technology so mechanically advanced that its discovery revolutionised both science and astronomy in a profound way. It's called the Antikythera Mechanism and was raised from the sea bed in 1901 near the island of Antikythera, half way between Crete and Greece. It is believed to be a sophisticated astronomical computer with an array of bronze dials displaying the positions of stars and planets while accurately showing dates, times, solar and lunar eclipses. It's even said to have charted key moments from the first Olympic Games.
You're possibly wondering why such an apparatus supersedes the soon-to-be-invented atomic-latte app? Well, analysis suggests that the mechanism dates back to 120BC and the complexity of the internal cogs and dials are comparable to an early 19th Century computer. In other words, it is precision science two millennia early.
Assuming there was no extra-terrestrial intervention, the ancient Greeks created a multi-geared device so complex and precise that it accurately predicts the solar eclipse on 8th April 2024 at exactly 16:30 GMT; an event now scientifically established. In fact, it's such a intensely sophisticated piece of engineering that some believe it to be an elaborate hoax. It's not. It's a proven discovery of immense mathematical and technological expertise. Two thousand years old.
The question is, what happened to the subsequent march of progress? Why was this leap in technology not refined and improved upon at the exponential rates similar to those we witness today? What secrets led to its disappearance leaving the rest of the world with antiquated sundials and star charts? And why was Edmund Halley caught out by a solar eclipse accurately foreseen by the Antikythera Mechanism seventeen centuries earlier? Surely one thousand seven hundred years was more than enough time to create a version small enough to be slipped in to his breast pocket?
We don't know where or how the ancient Greeks acquired their knowledge to build such an instrument and we certainly don't know how their greatest invention ended up at the bottom of the sea. But we do know that the whole episode is shrouded in tantalising mystery. And here's the truth. Sophisticated nanobots are waiting in a scientific future I am expecting but the phenomena of the Antikythera Mechanism is locked away in a technologically advanced past that I wasn't. And that makes it a far more soul-stirring proposition. Don't get me wrong, I'm still looking forward to a time when I never have to put the kettle on again thanks to our perfectly choreographed atomic friends. But I'd trade it all to know the truth surrounding ancient Greece's greatest scientific mystery.
Which me leads to a final thought for those frustrated technophobes who believe that modern technology has moved too fast. If the Antikythera Mechanism has proved anything it's that modern technology hasn't moved fast enough.
http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/
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Then consider this. Somewhere there may be Nano bots reading up (their AGTCs) about you.
"the perfect hot drink every time"
Why not dispense the perfect illusion of that experience directly into the brain instead?
"this is the stuff of fiction"
Very like our personal and unique renditions of reality then?
"The question is, what happened to the subsequent march of progress?"
It may have been put to the sword, for challenged the conventional wisdom of authority. Or like a precision timepiece found by primitive primates, discarded. Because its significance was far beyond their comprehension.
"Why was this leap in technology not refined"
Perhaps it revealed that the direction of one Mecca or another, was not what one high priest or other wished their congregation to accept.
"Surely one thousand seven hundred years was more than enough"
If two thousand five hundred years has not proven enough to eradicate the possibility of one particular discovery re-emerging, there is hope for us all.
"We don't know where or how the ancient Greeks acquired their knowledge"
But we do know the lengths that the imbeciles holding sway over them were prepared to go to, in order to prevent exposure of their own ineptitude.
"I'd trade it all to know the truth"
Then step this way. Because oddly, you already know it yet are still unaware.
"modern technology hasn't moved fast enough"
But it has still outpaced the intellects of the beings that wield it?
What happened? why religion happened of course.
Peoples were not educated in mass like they are now so such discoveries and its use was known to only a few. Today however while we are educated its not equal. I could not suffer the death of all mechanics and then have something go wrong with my car I could not repair it. It would be useless to me and thus I would have to live without. Such as if anything should happen to a large segment of the population that is important to run the physical aspects of the city and their knowlege base is taken away.. how could we stay in it and live as we do now?
It is important to remember how fragile humans are individually and as a group. We are also our own worst enemy and find it difficult to get out of our own way. This is another reason why we are not sailing full speed ahead on the advancement level.
Ours is that we have so much inovation we hardly have a chance to use or understand how to implement there benifit to our communities wellbeing. We end up glutted with junk that expires its use before most of us have even known they were there.
We suffer from the reverse.. We have alot of knowlege and inovation but we don't apply it universally. http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/” try this on for size its a real shocker..
Without going into conspiracy theory, (and Dan Brown), territory, how much information is still residing in the private libraries of the world that would be of use to us today in the fields of medicine and science?