• Captain Janeway@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The Greeks actually also invented steam engines. But they didn’t know what to do with them. So instead it was just a fancy art piece that spins super fast.

    They also invented a lot of other stuff: door bells that sound like birds chirping, automatic doors, clocks which tracked the year, etc.

    • Zanshi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I heard they did found some uses, but in the end slave labour was a lot cheaper. So the tengine fell into obscurity

      • ArtieShaw@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That’s pretty much where manufacturers are today when it comes to implementing automation. The technology exists in many manufacturing areas, but if workers can do it more cheaply they’re not investing in it.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So instead it was just a fancy art piece that spins super fast.

      Nah, they made a cool “magic like” automatic door with it.

      • dedale@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The Antikythera mechanism. An almost anachronistic device meant (we think) to calculate astronomical cycles.

        At this point I’m guessing they considered doing the whole industrial revolution thing then decided against it.

        • sneeple@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          If you haven’t seen it, Clickspring on youtube has a series where he recreates the Antikythera mechanism based on scans of the original. It’s an interesting series I recommend to anyone interested in that kinda thing

  • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s kinda stuff like this that makes me wonder what things are considered useless right now that will be the most important invention in the future

    • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      French mathematician Pierre de Fermat wrote a “little theorem” in 1640 that is now the basis of modern computer cryptography.

      The Fast Inverse Square Root is an algorithm that estimates 1/sqrt(x), a very important calculation in computer graphics. Early computers struggled when calculating this value but a programmer solved this mathematical problem…while programming Quake 3. His solution to the problem wasn’t discovered until the source code for the game was released.

      • dsemy@vlemmy.net
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        1 year ago

        The fast inverse square root algorithm was known from the 80’s, and was used in at least one game I’m aware of before Quake 3. Also, it wasn’t important in the long run - the same year Quake 3 was released, the rsqrtss instruction was introduced by Intel, which made this algorithm obsolete (as it was faster and more accurate).

        It is really cool though.