I was delighted that a Greek journalist, Achilleas Rodites, interviewed me about the reasons I wrote my book on the history of the Antikythera Mechanism, essentially studying how and why the ancient Greeks created this computer of genius 2,200 years ago. I spent about ten years in this book, starting with mythology, then philosophy, then science and, finally, politics, so I could understand the Greeks and their science and civilization.
I concluded the following: that the Greeks had a dream of a unified Cosmos made up of the sky and Earth working together in harmony and beauty. Pythagoras captured that dream beautifully. Add to that the science and vision of Aristotle passed on to Alexander the Great and the dream becomes real. Aristotle advised Alexander to unify Greece, which he did, then to conquer Persia because Persia, in the fourth century BCE, threatened freedom and democracy in Greece. Alexander defeated superior Persian armies and turned that vast empire into a Greek commonwealth of science and civilization.
One of Alexander's generals, Ptolemaios, was also a sudden of Aristotle. He became the king of Egypt and made Alexandria the capital of Greek learning and civilization, surpassing even Athens. He built the first University, which the Greeks called the Temple of the goddesses of learning or Mouseion. In addition, he founded the Alexandrian Library that became the largest library of the ancient world.
The Antikythera Mechanism emerged out of the Mouseion and the Library. It was a marvel of scientific technology the likes of which did not appear until the 18th century.
Here's the report of Achilleas Rodites:
And here's the link to a powerpoint presentation I made in Greek to two Greek universities: the Ionian University in Kerkyra and the European University in Cyprus:
https://eu-lti.bbcollab.com/
The link below is my powerpoint presentation, in English, at the Hellenic studies of the University of Chicago:
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