Lessons of an ancient device

Arrogant modern earthlings need occasional reminders that their own civilization is neither unique nor imperishable. The latest attempts to use X-rays and imaging technology to study a piece of machinery salvaged from the ocean floor more than a century ago will do the trick.

The thing was found off the isle of Antikythera, near Greece, in 1901. The humbling thing is that experts have been studying it now for more than a century and still can't quite figure out what it was.

It includes 82 fragments, which likely isn't all there was to begin with. These have 30 gear wheels and inscriptions that have to do with mathematics and astronomy. All over the thing are inscriptions that served as a sort of owner's manual. As long ago as the 1950s, experts were speculating that it was used to monitor and predict the movement of stars and planets.

Now, modern equipment has revealed that the device was even more complicated than originally thought, according to a report in the journal Nature. The Associated Press describes it as the size of office paper, and yet it contains hidden machinery more complicated than any clock developed more than 1,000 years later in Europe. It certainly was used to predict the movements of heavenly objects, perhaps to help navigate ships at sea. But it was capable of predicting an eclipse right down to the hour. It also could add, subtract, multiply and divide.

One professor calls it the "pocket calculator of the time." Another asks, "If the ancient Greeks made this, what else could they do?"

And, we add, what did they think of their great inventions and their civilization? That they were superior to others who had lived in previous ages? That they were invincible? Did they imagine themselves the way we imagine ourselves today?

The ancient computer holds many lessons about the ingenuity of ancient Greeks. But many ancient civilizations from Asia to Central and South America left tantalizing clues of technological wonders.

The real lesson of these devices is that, despite all the scientific know-how, the civilizations that created them collapsed. The computers, medical devices and other wonders became rusty fragments whose inventors, users and tech-specialists long ago turned to silent dust.

Modern men and women kid themselves into believing their world is superior and invincible as they stand in line for the latest game systems and ram iPods in their ears. They, too, will be dust.

Perhaps what the ancient computer really is trying to tell the modern world is to focus on things less complicated and longer lasting.