Episode 2(1): Mechanical automation and calculating - Meetup session 7
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This document discusses the evolution of mechanical automation and cognition from ancient Greek technologies to modern computing, emphasizing the loss of knowledge over centuries. It highlights key inventions like the Antikythera mechanism and explores how the printing revolution has transitioned into an electronic age of personal knowledge processing. The text also notes the socio-economic factors contributing to the preservation of knowledge and the automation of tasks throughout history.
Episode 2(1): Mechanical automation and calculating - Meetup session 7
- 1. Session 7: Episode 2(1) - Mechanical automation and calculating William P. Hall President Kororoit Institute Proponents and Supporters Assoc., Inc. - http://kororoit.org william-hall@bigpond.com http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net Access my research papers from Google Citations
- 2. Tonight Tonight we see how mechanical computation and automation in the ancient Greek world contributed to the rise of mechanical computation in the first half of the 20th Century. 2 EPISODE 2 – Automating Cognition Automation Technology and its Replication Forgotten and Invisible Generations of Computing and Automation Antikithera Mechanism – 2100 year old gear driven analog computer/simulator Automated theaters, temples, and toys 18th Century androids and automatons Forgotten knowledge is lost knowledge Zeroth Generation: Mechanical Technologies for Calculation Logarithmic technologies Gear-driven digital calculators Analog computation Automating calculations with technology from the weaving industry
- 3. Some thoughts about automation ― Introducing Episode 2
- 4. The printing revolution and the paper paradigm are essentially dead – Welcome virtual content The printing of books was a revolutionary technology that industrially replicated recorded knowledge at a unit cost that most literate people could afford We are currently in the midst of a new kind of "printing" revolution resulting from the development of an automated industrial technology – Prints electronic circuits and chips feeding into the mass- production of personal knowledge processors (personal computers). – For an equivalent price of less than what a single paper book cost 500 years ago, the personal computer or tablet can access and search what is close to the entire body of recorded human knowledge, and return relevant answers from that body of knowledge in less than a second 4
- 5. The book vs the notebook/tablet – similar physical size & weight 5 WYSIWYG Caesar, Caius Julius (1486), Les commentaires de iules cesar: Edited by Petrus Justinus, Publisher: Milan: Philippus de Lavagnia, Publication Date: 1478, 152 leaves. WHAT YOU SEE CONTAINS THE WORLD HP Compaq 630 Core i3-2310M 6GB 15.6 inch Laptop LV426PA-6GB for just A$499 (RRP $869). Specifications: 15.6" display. Hard drive. Intel core processor i3-2310M. Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Memory 6GB DDR3 SDRAM. HDMI. Bluetooth wireless. Integrated HP VGA Webcam, the Internet and more.....
- 6. What Episode 2 is about Traces the emergence and evolution of tangible tools and machines to automate cognitive processes and actions – From ancient Greek mechanical technologies – through to microelectronic processors and computers whose processing powers grow at a hyperexponential rate of doubling every two years Tonight’s session shows that – Some ancient Greeks were very smart, but except for fascinating snippets virtually all their knowledge and technology has been lost because the only records were hand-written and lost in the ravages of decay, war, fire, disinterest, and monotheism. – The sputtering threads of Hellenistic clockwork mechanisms of gear wheels and escapements eventually came to life again in mechanical calculators and analog computers Next session shows what happens when electronic devices are developed to perform the same kinds of operations with electrons moving at speeds close to that of light6
- 7. Forgotten & invisible generations of cognitive technology ― The pinnacle of Hellenistic science & technology was not surpassed until 16th- 17th Centuries ANCIENT AUTOMATION
- 8. Antikithera Mechanism – ~2100 year old gear driven analog computer/simulator 8 Fragment A (largest of several), recovered in 1900 by Greek sponge divers from the rich cargo of an ancient wreck found near the island of Antikythera. Serious studies of its functions, begun around 1950, suggested that it was a sophisticated analog computer to predict astronomical events The work’s quality & complexity represent well developed science and technology Front Back
- 9. Reconstruction of the mechanism – a complicated analog computer for predicting astronomical events 9 Coaxial shafts operating pointers Hypothetical reconstruction of the complete mechanism required to provide the functions described in the documentation that survived on the case or in contemporary accounts of the mechanism. This includes about 40 gears, 18 shafts, a double axel bearing with 2 off centered axes and one axle-shaft Reconstruction of 30 gears as determined from surviving fragments A well developed science was required to predict and model the relationships that would be displayed by the computer; to say nothing of the technology to build the gears!
- 10. Automation for temple and theatrical magic and toys for kings Products of the Mouseion(?) as documented by a few, serially copied fragments of what was probably an extensive technical literature copied by hand Actuating mechanisms were operated by gears, cams, levers, escapements, hydraulics, pneumatics & programmable pegged cylinders – all described in works attributed to Heron of Alexandria (i.e., Mouseion) as partially preserved in the Muslim East where strands of the technology survived in royal toys (video) and water works – see also Al Jazari video 10 A coin is magically transmuted into holy water Heron of Alexandria’s temple automation
- 11. What happened to the science and technology behind these wonders? By 100 BC Helenistic science and technology achieved a level not again reached until 16-17th Century Europe, ~1,600 years later – Where would we be today if this knowledge had not been lost? Why was it lost? – No printing/limited literacy/little distribution beyond Mouseion – Economic & cultural issues Economy limited to agriculture, handcrafts, & distribution Limited, aristocratic leisure class – most work done by illiterate slaves Slaves reproduced themselves & were cheaper than machines Only a handful of literate scientists and technicians – mostly servicing temples and providing temple magic – Neglect & eventual destruction of the Mouseion & Bibliotheca Failure to copy (required finding a major labor force just to copy & replace deteriorating MS) Helenistic wars of succession affecting Alexandria partially destroyed the Bibliotheca Eventual persecution of the temples, wizards and magicians under monotheistic desert religions that had no use for Helenistic wizardry Scientific & Industrial Revolutions required printing & literacy11
- 12. Tenuous & sputtering path into a new flowering of European science and technology Heron’s mechanical ideas were copied and passed down through the centuries by cultures that appreciated miraculous spectacles and priceless toys – Pneumatics work cited by 12th & 13th century Greek writings – Latin translations ~1500, then various vernacular languages – Actual mechanisms being implemented in the 1600s Escapements in keyboard instruments Church clocks and related clockwork mechanisms Technological flowering in the 18th Century – Automatons for royal courts of Europe and Asia – Pierre Jaquet-Droz Watchmaker to the rich elites around the world Worked from Geneva, Paris, London, Fabulous creations survive today See one hour video – Mechanical Marvels Clockwork Dreams (28 min for The Writer) 12
- 13. The Writer and his friends 13 Formation of each letter controlled by 3 cams (E-W, N-S, up-down) Programmable selector wheel sets cam shaft to the cams for the selected letter Other visualizations: - Jacquet Droz corporate video (4 min in) - Still pictures (see Book end note #124) - Les 3 automates Jaquet-Droz - The Draughtsman (2000 pieces) and The Musician (2500 pieces)
- 14. Tools assisting human cognition 14 600 BC • These early and slowly evolving tools all worked to help humans keep track of the numbers of items they are working with • They do not actively calculate anything
- 15. The development of mechanical technologies to automate and replace mental calculation, computation and logical choice
- 16. 1654 1881 Active tools that performed calculations Logarithms & slide rules – Accuracy determined by length of slide Clockwork inspired – Pascaline (~1650) 16 1950s Front Back opened Pressed metal throwaways – 1950’s – Father used them to help manage his share portfolio 1960s
- 17. Gear/pinwheel driven calculators Babbage’s Difference Engines – Not built in his lifetime 17 Odnhers – 700 parts John Wolff's Web Museum 1874 ~1970 Full function rotary calculators – ~4,000 parts – Performs a complete addition cycle in less than one-third of a second, with a peak rate of over one thousand additions per minute
- 18. Business process automation Babbage’s concept for the Analytical Engine ~1840 – Programmability with punch cards – Arithmetic logic unit – Conditional branching & loops – Integrated memory Punch card tabulating machines – Hollerith’s 1890 solution for US Census Business process automation by 1950’s – Chained processes Punching Sorting Calculation/accounting – Programmability Switching Plug board resetting Master card18
- 19. Electric relay computers ~1940 Mark 1 for calculation of ballistics tables Mechanical memory – 10 pole dial switch settings for 60 x 23 digit constants – 72 storage counters consisting of twenty-four electro-mechanical counter wheels (each a modified IBM adding machine) + relays Electrical – Relay based calculating units & function counters Paper tape based I/O and sequence(process control) units Card punches, card feeders, & teleprinters 19
- 20. Analog computing Antikythera Mechanism Gear driven – Predicting the tides Thompson 1876 10 tidal components Could predict a year in about 4 hours cranking – Librascope aviation (aircraft balance) Electrical potentiometric – Various input voltages produce output voltage – mechanically driven intermediate potentiometers – Hitachi 240 40 chopper stabilized amplifiers + 40 pots Diode function generators Multipliers & building blocks Problems with accuracy20