"Decoding the Heavens" by Jo Marchant

"Decoding the Heavens" by Jo Marchant, the story of the Antikythera mechanism. This book is amazing on a number of different levels. Unfortunately, the writing style is not one of them. It seems to follow the breathless potboiler model of some of the mass market stuff like "The DaVinci Code". (Did I mention how much I hated that book? Oh, I did? Sorry, but I really didn't like it. Good story, terrible writing. What is happening in the publishing industry? Don't ask if you don't want to know.)

Anyway, the story is stupendous, the level of science and technology involved in this tale is tremendous. It's like a short course in the development of technology during the 20th century. It also looks at the people and politics involved which gives some insight into academic competition.

It also opens the door to creating a new vision of the city (Atlantis?) that was destroyed by a eruption of a volcano on the of island of Thera in the Eastern Mediterranean around 3500 years ago.

This story seems to be having a hard time gaining traction, and it makes me wonder about people. The stories we have been telling ourselves about the ancient world (anytime before the year zero), all seem to involve massive buildings, massive sculptures and massive armies, but technology was extremely limited. The wheel was like the most sophisticated tool they had. Bronze was used for making swords and shields. Any kind of mechanical technology simply did not exist.

But the Antikythera mechanism changes all that. We have known about the mechanism for over 100 years, but our story about the ancients has not changed one wit. Why is that? Are the historians so wedded to their stories they cannot accept that they might be in error? Or maybe no one cares.

I think this device is very significant and we should be thinking about what it means. Of course, I also like it that it gives some support to my conspiracy theory about the Egyptians and their hieroglyphics.



Update March 2016 replaced missing picture.